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About this lesson
For CS6 or above: three new filters that photographers have been dying to get their hands on – Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt Shift.
Exercise files
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Quick reference
Topic
Three types of blurring effects that will give you a lot more creative control.
When to use
CS6 or above. Three new filters that photographers have been dying to get their hands on. Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt Shift.
Instructions
Field Blur
- Filter menu/Filters/Field Blur
- Click on pins to add or remove blur
- Use slider in right to adjust the Bokeh effects
Iris Blur
- Filter menu/Filters/Iris Blur
- Use ellipse handles to adjust the shape, position and rotation of focus area
- Use ring to control amount of blur
Tilt-Shift
- Filter menu/Filters/Tilt-Shift
- Use handles to adjust the shape, position and rotation of focus area
- Use ring to control amount of blur
- Extra effect: distortion in control panel
- 00:04 Photoshop has always had a slew of blur filters available,
- 00:07 but they weren't that attractive to photographers. In Photoshop CS6, Adobe has
- 00:11 introduced three new filters
- 00:12 that photographers have been dying to get their hands on:
- 00:15 Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt Shift.
- 00:19 The most basic of the three new blurs is
- 00:22 Field Blur. This will allow you to create a simple overall blur
- 00:25 or a blur from A to B. Of course, you can add C,D,E and so on,
- 00:30 but I think you might find that the other two blurs are more suited for
- 00:33 that.
- 00:33 When you first add the filter, you're given a single pin.
- 00:37 This will help you define your blur. You might notice a ring that goes around
- 00:40 your pin -
- 00:41 clicking and dragging inside this ring will increase or decrease the amount of
- 00:45 blur.
- 00:46 Alternatively, you can adjust the amount of blur by using the slider
- 00:50 input field on the right side of your workspace. To place an additional pin,
- 00:54 simply click on the area that you want the new pin to appear. This new pin can
- 00:58 act as
- 00:58 either an additional blur or a visible area to your image.
- 01:01 Once you have a second pin in place, just like we covered with the initial pin,
- 01:06 you can adjust the amount of blur this pin creates. For this image, we're going to
- 01:10 go ahead and remove the blur completely,
- 01:12 creating a transition between the two pins. At any point, you can place your
- 01:16 cursor
- 01:16 inside the center of the pin and drag them around your canvas to adjust the
- 01:20 direction of the blur.
- 01:21 Now, one of the big requested features is the ability to add
- 01:25 Bokah at your images. Bokah is an effect that occurs to the light
- 01:28 areas of the out-of-focus portions of an image. Depending on the lens that the
- 01:32 image was taken with,
- 01:33 some results may be more attractive than others. Many photographers strive for the
- 01:37 rounded spots look.
- 01:39 With Photoshop CS6, photographers can now simulate Bokeh
- 01:42 using the sliders at the bottom. The light Bokeh slider controls how bright
- 01:47 your final result will be.
- 01:48 The further to the right you move the slider, the brighter the highlight in a
- 01:52 blur area will be.
- 01:53 Bokeh color, as you might guess, adds color to the effected areas.
- 01:57 This can help add emotion or temperature to your image. Typically, the results are quite
- 02:01 subtle.
- 02:02 The light range slider tells Photoshop which areas to modify.
- 02:06 If you were to move the dark slider to the left, Photoshop will include more of
- 02:10 the shadows and mid tones of the image in the final result.
- 02:13 Moving the light slider to left would exclude some other brighter areas.
- 02:17 And finally, if you're looking to increase or decrease the actual size of the
- 02:20 Bokeh spots,
- 02:21 this is controlled by the amount of blur that you defined earlier.
- 02:25 At this point, you can go back in and adjust the blur by either dragging the ring that
- 02:28 surrounds the pin
- 02:30 or by using the blur slider in the panel to the right. The second blur that's
- 02:34 been introduced is Iris Blur.
- 02:34 For those who are looking to focus on a single object or an image,
- 02:39 the iris blur may be your best bet. Like the name implies,
- 02:42 this blur creates an ellipse around the area of focus,
- 02:46 which can be adjusted to include more, or less of your photo.
- 02:49 There are several elements to this blur ellipse. The four small squares that go around
- 02:53 the outer ellipse are called ellipse handles.
- 02:56 These give you the ability to adjust the size and rotation at the focus area
- 03:00 by pulling them inwards, outwards, left or right.
- 03:03 Any part of the image outside the ellipse will be blurred by the amount you set
- 03:08 using your blur ring or the blur slider. The larger white square, called the roundness
- 03:12 knob, controls the radius of the ellipse.
- 03:15 Pulling this handle outwards will create a rounded rectangle, rather than a perfect
- 03:18 circle.
- 03:19 Pulling it back inward will round out the ellipse once again.
- 03:22 Moving on inwards, we have four white circles:
- 03:25 these are the feather handles. Whether you're looking for a sharp transition or a
- 03:28 gradual soft transition,
- 03:30 these handles will help you achieve either one. Just like the roundness knob,
- 03:34 these handles can be moved in or out to change the feathering. For natural results,
- 03:38 you want to make sure that the handles are close to focal point
- 03:41 but not completely covering it. Finally like the rest of the blur tools,
- 03:45 the blur ring and the center pin are available if you're looking to adjust
- 03:48 the amount to blur, or move the blur around your canvas.
- 03:49 Now ,the last blur available to you
- 03:54 is a Tilt-Shift Blur. Tilt-Shifting is a process that gives your photos
- 03:58 a miniature feel to them. However, not all photos will benefit from this effect.
- 04:03 Typically, you should choose an overhead photo where the main subjects are at a
- 04:06 distance from the camera,
- 04:07 like the one you see here. Tilt-Shift can be found with the other two blurs, under the
- 04:11 filter menu at the top.
- 04:13 Upon launching this blur, you'll notice a few friendly elements along with some
- 04:16 new ones.
- 04:17 As we've gone over before, our blurring allows us to adjust the amount of blur
- 04:21 outside the focus zone, as well as move your blower anywhere on your canvas.
- 04:26 Right below the blur ring, we have our rotate handle. Clicking and dragging
- 04:29 on this handle will allow you to rotate your focus zone.
- 04:33 The rectangle that your blur ring sits inside is called the focus zone.
- 04:36 Anything that lies inside this zone will be 100% visible.
- 04:40 You want to place your main subjects inside the focus zone.
- 04:43 If your subject is bigger or smaller than the focus zone, you are able to adjust
- 04:47 the size by pulling on
- 04:48 either of the focus lines. Outside the focus zone, we have our transition zone.
- 04:53 This is where the blurring begins. To adjust the transition zone of the blur,
- 04:57 the dashed line - called the feather-line - can be moved, just like the focus lines.
- 05:01 A tighter transition zone can give the impression that the subjects were
- 05:04 photographed closer to the camera.
- 05:04 Our last zone is the blur zone.
- 05:08 This area will be completely blurred, defined by the amount of blur you
- 05:11 applied
- 05:12 using either the blur ring or the slider to the right.
- 05:15 Finally, on the right we have a distortion slider: dragging the slider
- 05:19 left or right will slightly distort your blur within the blur zone.
- 05:22 By default, you only see distortion applied to the bottom section.
- 05:26 But, turning on symmetric distortion will apply it to both the top
- 05:29 and the bottom of the blur zone. If all went well, your final image should look
- 05:33 like a miniature representation of the actual image.
- 05:36 And those are three new blurs inside Photoshop CS6.
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