Photoshop CC (2014 release) Visual Quick Start: Refocusing
- Applying a filter in the Blur Gallery
- Applying the Smart Sharpen filter
- Applying the Unsharp Mask filter
- Applying the Shake Reduction filter
- Using the Sharpen tool
IN THIS CHAPTER
- Applying a filter in the Blur Gallery
- Applying the Smart Sharpen filter
- Applying the Unsharp Mask filter
- Applying the Shake Reduction filter
- Using the Sharpen tool
In Photoshop, just as in photography, you can use focusing techniques to enhance a scene, such as a shallow depth of field to differentiate a subject from its background or blurriness to convey a sense of motion. And you can use sharpening methods to counteract the effects of resampling, to remedy blurring from camera shake, or to prepare a file for output.
In this chapter, you’ll blur areas of an image using the Field Blur, Iris Blur, Tilt-Shift, Path Blur, and Spin Blur filters (collectively called the Blur Gallery). And you will apply sharpening via the Smart Sharpen, Unsharp Mask, and Shake Reduction filters, and via the Sharpen tool.
Note: For lens corrections, we recommend using the Lens Correction tab in Camera Raw (instead of the Lens Correction filter in Photoshop), either before you open your photo into Photoshop, or by way of Filter > Camera Raw Filter in Photoshop.
Applying a filter in the Blur Gallery
The Field Blur, Iris Blur, Tilt-Shift, Path Blur,★ and Spin Blur ★ filters provide powerful and flexible on-canvas and panel controls for blurring parts of an image.
Note: To apply filters in the Blur Gallery, Use Graphics Processor must be checked in Edit/Photoshop > Preferences > Performance. You will see a more accurate preview while making on-canvas adjustments if your system has a graphics card with 1 GB or more of VRAM or an embedded HD graphics processing unit.
To apply a filter in the Blur Gallery: ★
- Open an image (preferably one that is all or mostly in focus). To keep the filter settings nondestructive and editable, convert a duplicate of an image layer or the Background to a Smart Object.
- Choose Filter > Blur Gallery > Field Blur to produce multiple blur areas, Iris Blur to blur areas around a focus ellipse, Tilt-Shift to apply blurring in straight bands across portions of the image, or Spin Blur to create an effect of radial motion within a circular area. To apply the Path Blur filter, see pages 330–331.
- A default pin with controls appears in the image, and panels with option settings appear in a dock on the right. On the Options bar, make sure Preview is checked (P).
- For a Field Blur, add another pin by clicking in the image. Set the Blur value for one pin to 0% (full focus), then click the other pin and give it a higher Blur value (blurring). To use the full potential of this filter, add more pins, some with a Blur value of 0 and some with a Blur value greater than 0 (A–C, next page).
- You can also do any of the following optional steps:
- To hide the on-canvas controls to judge the blurring effect, press and hold down H (then release).
- Optional: To brighten the blur highlights to the point that they become abstract, colored orbs, for a Field, Iris, or Tilt-Shift Blur, click a pin, check Bokeh in the Blur Effects panel, then adjust the settings (A–C, page 332).
- Optional: To save the blur mask that Photoshop created for the filter to an alpha channel, check Save Mask to Channels on the Options bar (A–D, page 333). To preview the mask, press and hold down M (then release).
- To accept your blur filter edits, press Enter/Return or click OK on the Options bar. To edit the blur settings or to mask the results, see pages 360–362.
- To remove all blur pins from an image, click the Remove All Pins button
on the Options bar. - To switch to a different filter in the Blur Tools panel, uncheck the box for the current filter, then expand the category for the desired one.
- To the same Smart Object, you can also apply nonblur filters. We don’t recommend applying multiple Blur Gallery filters to an image (except possibly to add a small Field Blur ring to a sharp area), as doing so is likely to blur the whole photo.
Optional: To mask the filter effect partially, create a selection. The selection area will appear in the Smart Filters mask when you exit the gallery.
To control the degree of blurring for a Field, Iris, or Tilt-Shift blur, either adjust the Blur slider in the dock; or in the image, drag around the blur ring that surrounds the pin (add more black to the ring to reduce the blur, or reduce black to increase the blur).
For an Iris Blur, do any of the following: To adjust the shape of the focus ellipse, drag one of the small outer round handles; to scale the ellipse uniformly, drag its edge; to rotate the ellipse, drag outside one of the small handles (double-arrow pointer); to reposition where the blurring begins, drag one of the feather handles (or to move one feather handle separately, drag it while holding down Alt/Option); to change the ellipse to a rounded rectangle, drag the square Roundness knob outward (A–D, page 328).
For a Tilt-Shift Blur, do any of the following: To adjust where the blurring begins, drag either or both of the solid focus lines; to adjust the transition between the in-focus and blurred areas, drag either or both of the dashed feather lines; to rotate the focus area, drag a rotation handle slightly to the left or right (A–C, page 329).
For a Spin Blur,★ do any of the following: To reshape the focus ellipse, drag one of the outer round handles; to scale the ellipse uniformly, drag its edge; to adjust the angle, drag around the blur ring or change the Blur Angle value in the panel; to move the blur, drag anywhere inside the ellipse; or to reposition the rotation point (say, to make it look as if subject was shot at an angle), drag the point with Alt/Option held down). See C–D, page 331.
To add a pin, click in the image.
To reposition a pin, drag its center point. You can move a pin outside the canvas area.
To delete a pin, click its center point, then press Backspace/Delete.
To copy a pin, drag its center point with Alt-Ctrl/Option-Cmd held down.
To control the amount of focus within the currently selected ellipse for an Iris Blur, or between the two feather lines for a Tilt-Shift blur, adjust the Focus setting on the Options bar.
THE FIELD BLUR FILTER
Use the Field Blur filter when you need the most flexibility and control in blurring specific areas of an image (such as the hair, arms, and background in the photo on this page), while keeping other, more important, areas in sharp focus. Use as many pins as you like, but be sure to place a few pins with a Blur value of 0% in areas that you want to keep in focus, and place other pins with a Blur value between 5% and 100% in areas that you want to blur (the blurring occurs between the high and low values).A–C You can reposition any pin individually by dragging it in the image. This is one of our favorite features of Photoshop!
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A This is the original image.
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B We applied the Field Blur filter using a Blur value of 0% for the pins on the woman’s face and hands to keep those areas in focus, and Blur values above 10% for all the other pins.
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C This is the result.
THE IRIS BLUR FILTER
The Iris Blur filter applies blurring around a focus ellipse. You can use just a single pin or click in the image to create additional ones.A–D
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A This is the original image.
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B When we chose the Iris Blur filter, the default on-canvas controls displayed.
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C We moved the ellipse slightly to the left by dragging the pin, elongated the ellipse, rotated it slightly to match the angle of the figure, then held down Alt/Option and dragged just the top feather handle upward to keep the woman’s face in full focus.
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D In the final image, the figure and part of the shopping cart are in focus, while the background is blurred.
THE TILT-SHIFT FILTER
The Tilt-Shift filter applies blurring in two straight bands across the image, while keeping a band in the center in focus. You can control the width of the blurred area by dragging either or both of the focus lines, adjust the amount of feathering by dragging either or both of the feather lines, or shift the whole widget to a new angle by dragging a rotation handle slightly.A–C You can also choose a negative Distortion value to distort a blurred area along imaginary lines that curve around the pin, or a positive value to distort a blurred area along lines that radiate outward from the pin. Additionally, you can check Symmetric Distortion to apply the distortion in both sides.
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A This is the original image.
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B We chose the Tilt-Shift filter settings shown at right, rotated the pin, and dragged the feather and focus lines.
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C This is the result of our applying the Tilt-Shift filter.
The Path Blur filter applies a motion blurring effect to a path. You can edit the path to control the shape of the blur, say, to mimic the result of camera movement.
To apply the Path Blur filter: ★
- On the Layers panel, click a Smart Object.
- Choose Filter > Blur Gallery > Path Blur. A blue path appears on the image. The arrow on the path indicates the direction of motion.
- After doing any of the following, you can press and hold down H to hide the on-canvas controls:
- Keep High Quality checked to help prevent the blur from looking jagged.
- Follow steps 8–9 on page 326.
To change the length or angle of the path, drag either endpoint.
To produce a curve, drag the center point or a straight segment.A
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A To create an illusion of fast motion, we repositioned the two endpoints on the blue path for a Path Blur, then dragged to curve the path to match the road. To minimize blurring at the end of the road, we set the right endpoint to an End Point Speed of 0%. (The original image is shown in the inset.)
To add more curve points, drag a segment.
To convert a curve point to a corner point, or to convert a corner point to a curve point, hold down Alt/Option and click it.
To produce another (straight) path, drag in the image.B Or to produce a path that has multiple segments, hold down Alt/Option and click several times, then to end the path, press Enter/Return or Esc, or click the last point you created. To produce multiple curve segments, click without Alt/Option.
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B To straighten the blurring on the left side of the road, we dragged to create a new, straight path.
To control the speed of the blur, adjust the Speed value in the panel. To control how gradually the blur fades, use the Taper slider. These settings affect all Path Blurs in the image (A, next page).
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A We chose these Speed and Taper settings for all of our Path Blur paths.
Check Centered Blur for a more uniform, anchored blur; or uncheck this option for a more malleable blur, and to let imagery move more fluidly as you drag paths or blur shapes.
To move a path, hold down Ctrl/Cmd and drag it.
You can also move the midpoint along the length of a path (you can’t delete the midpoint).
To delete a point or path, click it, then press Backspace/Delete.
To further manipulate a blur shape, click an endpoint, check Edit Blur Shapes in the panel, then drag the white dot at the end of the red guide to rotate just that guide.
To change the blur speed, raise the End Point Speed value on the panel; or with Edit Blur Shapes checked in the panel, drag the end of the red guide to lengthen or shorten it.
To remove the blur from a blue endpoint, hold down Ctrl/Cmd and click the endpoint; or click the endpoint, then set the End Point Speed value in the panel to 0 (zero) (B, next page). The red guide disappears and the endpoint becomes gray.
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B To eliminate blurring from the background, we dragged to create another Path Blur, then set the End Point Speed for both endpoints on that path to 0 px.
ADDING A STROBE-AND-FLASH EFFECT
To add a strobe effect to a Path or Spin Blur, use these options in the Motion Blur Effects tab:
- Strobe Strength controls how much blur is visible between flash exposures. The higher the strength, the stronger the strobe effect.
- Strobe Flashes controls the number of exposures in the image (positions where a blurred shape is captured).
- Strobe Flash Duration (for a Spin Blur only) controls the amount of rotation that is captured in each strobe flash. The shorter the duration, the more distinct the shapes in the blur.
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The spin blur filter
After choosing the Spin Blur filter, roll over the image to make the on-image controls appear.C–D
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C We chose the Spin Blur filter, set the Blur Angle to 15°, and enlarged the focus ring by dragging its edge. (The original image is shown in the inset.)
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D After exiting the Blur Gallery, we clicked the Smart Filters mask thumbnail, then applied brush strokes to the bike frame and foot to mask the Spin Blur filter effect from those areas.
Using the bokeh options in the blur gallery
To achieve good results from the Bokeh feature in the Blur Gallery, you may need to experiment with various images and settings (it took us a number of tries).
The bokeh will be more pronounced in some areas of an image than in others; you will see this if you drag a pin to a different part of the image. Also, if you change the Blur value for a pin, the size of the bokeh is also affected.
- To control the brightness of the bokeh, adjust the Light Bokeh value.A–C
- To control the amount of color variation in the bokeh, adjust the Bokeh Color value.
- To control the range of brightness values in which the bokeh can appear, drag the Light Range sliders. For smaller bokeh spots, position the sliders near each other at either end of the bar.
- For higher-quality bokeh (but slower rendering), check High Quality on the Options bar.
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A This is the original image.
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B We created multiple pins for the Field Blur filter, checked Bokeh, increased the Light Bokeh value to brighten the bokeh, increased the Bokeh Color to intensify the color saturation, and moved the Light Range sliders near each other at the right end of the bar to limit the effect to the image highlights.
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C This is the final image.
USING THE MASK FROM A BLUR GALLERY FILTER
As we stated in step 8 on page 326, while applying a filter in the Blur Gallery, you can save the blur mask to an alpha channel by clicking Save Mask to Channels on the Options bar. After accepting the filter, save your file.
To use the mask in your document, before applying an image edit (such as an adjustment layer, artistic filter, or brush strokes), hold down Ctrl/Cmd and click the alpha channel thumbnail on the Channels panel 
to load the mask as a selection. It will protect the nonblurred areas of the layer.A–D
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A When we applied the Iris Blur filter to this image, we checked Save Mask to Channel.
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B We held down Ctrl/Cmd and clicked the alpha channel thumbnail to load the Blur Mask as a selection.
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C We created a Color Balance adjustment layer, then moved the Yellow slider to the left to make the image slightly warmer.
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D Finally, we reloaded the selection, then used a Levels adjustment to lighten the image. The mask on each adjustment layer is hiding the adjustment from the center of the image.