| Joined: | Wed Apr 18th, 2012 |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 4178 |
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I thought I would do that one of the Hummingbird moth as I was never sure if I liked the background in the original, but maybe the problem was the crop I made!
I prefer your crop.
Re: " Incidentally, somewhere on my desktop I have a PS Action that sequentially layers focus progressively back in stages giving increasing levels of defocus away from a subject to give quite a natural depth of field effect. I created it after messing up a shoot with the wrong aperture. "
If you can find it I would be interested to test out as I did this by hand with a duplicate layer with a large amount of gaussian blur and a mask.
I should have made it as a smart object so I could change the blur. I always remember half way through the exercise.
There are always many different ways to do stuff in Photoshop it really is a total learning experience.
My desktop is out of action at the moment (lack of use) but will see if I can find it elsewhere on a drive.
From 15year memory.......
The process started with tight masking ALL the areas behind the subject.
Apply a minimal blur as the 'base coat' start this action..
Contract the mask by 2 pixels > Apply a feather of 1 pixel > Apply 5% more blur
Contract the mask by 4 pixels > Apply a feather of 2 pixel > Apply 5% more blur
Contract the mask by 10 pixels > Apply a feather of 5 pixel > Apply 10% more blur
Contract the mask by 20 pixels > Apply a feather of 10 pixel > Apply 10% more blur
Contract the mask by 50 pixels > Apply a feather of 20 pixel > Apply 15% more blur
Contract the mask by 100 pixels > Apply a feather of 50pixel > Apply 20% more blur
The actual numbers may be wrong but the principal is the same.....ie don't apply feather to the mask in the first instance, then soften the edge effect by 'one step forward - half back' approach, increasing the intensity as you go further back.
There are a couple of pitfalls to watch out for.
The mask moves away from the frame edges incrementally so you are left with an edge and top that needs a small crop.
If the mask is not horizontal behind the subject lower areas may get more blurring than their distance demands. So using the rectangle mask to subtract these irregularities halfway through the action (or step back afterwards and restart) irons out this issue.
Of course Adobe may have added this filter to more recent versions ....but I am still old school diy.
____________________
Eric