Blur Gallery

Quick reference

• 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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