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The romantic soft backgrounds of product shots,
extreme macros and portraits can be hard to come by with
prosumer digital camera. The shorter focal lengths of digital
lenses, even in telephoto, provides more depth of field and
therefore sharper backgrounds.
This was a frustration for me until last year's
Photoshop World when my colleague Jim DiVitale slipped this
trick into his presentation. It's too good to keep a secret and
I'll be including it in my Photoshop World 2001 presentation in
Los Angeles.
The example I'll use is a grab shot of a glass
of wine I made at a waterfront restaurant. No lighting, no
set-up. Just a full glass of wine and some late afternoon
sunlight. Even at 105mm (equiv) telephoto, my Nikon 950 captured
the boats in the ratty marina too sharply for a background.
Also, a careless waiter sloshed just a bit of wine on the table.
Step 1: Open the image and create two new layers
(Command/PC: Control + J). Perform a "save as" to preserve your
original image. I usually erase the background after saving the
new file.
Step 2: Select the bottom layer (I've named mine
Background) and perform an extreme Gaussian Blur on it. I
usually use 44 or 55 percent, just because it's easier to type
one key twice.
Step 3: Outline the subject that is to remain
sharp. For portraits, I use the Lasso tool but with the definite
lines of the glass, I used the Pen tool for a precise selection
and converted the path to a selection (Shift+Return).
For irregular subjects such as a person's face
and hair, you can slip into the Quick Mask mode and paint in
(airbrush set to black) or erase (airbrush set to white) detail
for the selection.
Step 4: With the selection active, click on the
Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layer palette. The effect
is instantaneous and amazing. In this case, it certainly beat
lugging lights and bringing a set designer to dinner.
Tomorrow's the big day. Leave Tampa for L.A.,
see my ole' buddy Hef, check out Gwyneth's pool, try to call
Bobby DiNiro (he screens his calls), and, if there's time,
attend Photoshop World 2001. I'll be shooting all weekend so if
you see a gray-haired tall geezer with a 990, come up and say
hello.
What will I be shooting? Tomorrow night's Wacom
party, followed by the Dream Team Jam Session. Plenty of seats
for all are promised. Saturday morning's keynote address by
Adobe VP Ron Okamoto, followed by NAPP president Scott Kelby's
"really huge secret announcement." Then a day of training
sessions, visits to the tech reps and the vendor floor. Saturday
night, it's the big pool party at the Hotel Figueroa and
unverified rumor has it that Britney is a Photoshop User.
At 1000 hours, I take the podium for my session
on Digital Photography and Photoshop. The whole thing wraps up
with a giant drawing with terrific prizes.
If you're a digital photographer and attending
Photoshop World, please bring along a small portfolio of your
work. I'm always on the lookout for talent to feature in this
column.
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