Selective Blurring V not ?

[Millie]

Selective blurring in Photoshop, or a lens with right focal length, distance to subject, and aperture.

Which is best for sports photography, or anything were you want to isolate subjects from messy backgrounds ?

Millie

[Canon-Fodder!]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

Hi Millie;

Oooo - Nathaniel is gonna love this one :-)

I've never been succesful in adding selective blurring after the event; perhaps I'm simply not good enough with PhotoShop (!)...

So I always strive for getting it right off the bat; as I'm sure you do!

Nice long lens wide-open, and unless the subject is right on top of the BG, should work most of the time I reckon!

[colin C]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

Selective blurring in Photoshop, or a lens with right focal length, distance to subject, and aperture.

Which is best for sports photography, or anything were you want to isolate subjects from messy backgrounds ?

Millie

The right tool for the job is always the best solution and that would be fast telophoto's. But, that comes at a heavy cost and cost shouldn't be a bar to anyone starting to photograph a given subject.

Therefore plan B is to practice your Photoshop skills to produce a similar result. It has to be done well to make it work and a blanket selection of the background and then apply a given amount of blur will normally stand out as "odd". Depending on the background, make a selection of the subject and put it as the top layer. Then using the background layer, make a selection of the near background and apply a small amount of blur, another selection slightly further back and add a little more blur, another selection a little further back and so on. With a reasonable overlap (feather) on each selection, you should be able to get a realistic result, "similar" to using the ideal lens.

Each stage should be gently, gently, and don't apply too much blur at a time, or the farther sections will "block up" and then you have to take remedial action, such as adding digital noise on another layer and fading down on the opacity slider.

A lot easier to use the right lens!



Colin

[Millie]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

Hi Canon-fodder & Colin

Oooo - Nathaniel is gonna love this one :-)
I've never been succesful in adding selective blurring after the event; perhaps I'm simply not good enough with PhotoShop (!)...

He he----- with some subjects it’s almost impossible to get it perfect without spending a very, very long time.
I think Colin’s “Plan B” tips for the selective blurring technique illustrate that.
Could be as much of a BAR for me as buying the lenses.

Sometimes I like to ‘pixel peep’, if I think an image has been manipulated in this way.
I will only look very closely at the bits of the image I know would be the most difficult to blur, sad.

Let’s have a discussion on dof - focal length - subject distance for isolating subjects in particular scenarios. ?
Where would you post a question or start a discussion like that on this forum?

Millie

[Canon-Fodder!]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

Let’s have a discussion on dof - focal length - subject distance for isolating subjects in particular scenarios. ?
Where would you post a question or start a discussion like that on this forum?

Specialist Subjects ???

Could really do with a 'Techniques' area I guess!

[djguk47]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

Specialist Subjects ???

Could really do with a 'Techniques' area I guess!

A Techniques Area would be great as some of you guys and gals, of course, keep on dropping little pearls of wisdom in so many of your comments that I have resorted to copy pasting them into a word document and then sticking it into a notebook carried in my bag along with all the other "stuff"
David

[Millie]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

Hmmmmm, I'm not sure it's a specialist subject, I think trancends several areas like sport, people, and wildlife, I'm sure people can think of others.

The problem with "general duscussion areas" is that they get bogged down with irrelevant stuff, and arguments.
Millie

[hughbie]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

The problem with "general duscussion areas" is that they get bogged down with irrelevant stuff, and arguments.

No they don't.

[Millie]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

No they don't.

OH YES THEY DO !!!

[Canon-Fodder!]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

OH YES THEY DO !!!

Oooo - shouting now are we

Hughbie beat me to the rejoinder

[colin C]

Re: Selective Blurring V not ?

A Techniques Area would be great as some of you guys and gals, of course, keep on dropping little pearls of wisdom in so many of your comments that I have resorted to copy pasting them into a word document and then sticking it into a notebook carried in my bag along with all the other "stuff"
David

I do applaud diligence.

Colin