Creative Exchange Week 2

Through AC’s Scrapbook, I discovered The Creative Exchange. Hosted by White Cotton Tee, it’s a place to share something creative each week that is uniquely you. Whether it’s drawing, painting, photography, writing, poetry, blog/web design, photo tutorial, examples of cooking, baking, sewing, fashion, dance…just about anything goes as long as it’s creative!

So I’m hoping on board this week with a photo taken of Peanut at a local Fall Fest. I wanted the background blurred, but the original shot wasn’t blurred enough for my liking. No worries, as any good designer will tell you…we’ll fix it in post.

To reduce the background detail and bring the foreground object into sharper focus, take the following steps in PhotoShop. You will need a basic understanding of PhotoShop terminology and tools. If you need help, please let me know.

1. Make sure your image is flat. Open your Layers Palette.

2. In the Layers palette, right click and select Duplicate Layer. You have made a copy of the background layer. Select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Make desired adjustments. Click OK.

3. At the bottom of the Layers palette, click the Create Vector Mask icon at the bottom of the palette window. A white box should appear in the copy layer.

4. In the left toolbar, make sure your foreground color is black and background color is white.

5. Select the Brush tool. Adjust the size of the brush.

6. Begin “painting” the image you want to bring into focus. Smaller brush tips can be used to initially paint the edges. Larger brush tips can be used to paint the inside of the object.

7. If you happen to accidentally paint outside your object, Click the X key and go back and blur those areas. Click the X key again to return to painting away the mask. Clicking X switches the black and white colors. If you wish to include some areas surrounding your image but don’t want them in as much detail, adjust brush opacity and paint some of the area surrounding the foreground image. Return to 100% opacity to continue with your main image.

8. Once the image is in sharp focus, if you’re happy with the result, you are finished.

9. Flatten the image.

Before photo…………………………………………..After photo

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