Blurring backgrounds

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

Here's an image I'm reasonably happy with except that the background is a little too busy:



What techniques would you use to blur it out, and make it a little more uniform? This is really a two part question:

1. How would you select the background with a soft enough edge that the transition is not apparent?
2. Having selected it, what tools would you use to blur it out?

[Doug Brown]

How about this version. I used the quick select tool to select the bird and the main portion of the feeder. Then I used the lasso tool to select the projecting black wires. I copied the selection to its own layer. Then I activated the selection (so that it has marching ants around it) and did an inverse selection. I went back to the Background layer and clicked 'Refine Edge.' In the next dialog I feathered about 3 pixels and shifted the edge of the selection to -100%. I then copied the selection to a new layer in between the other two layers, and applied a Gaussian blur to the middle layer.

[Doug Brown]

Here's a screenshot of the layers.

[Doug Brown]

Here's the middle layer (Layer 2) with the Gaussian blur already applied.

[Doug Brown]

And here's the top layer (Layer 1). The whole processing job took 2 or 3 minutes on my laptop.

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

When I copy the selection to its own layer (Cmd-J) I lose the selection unless I save it as a named selection first. What did you do in the step where you "activated the selection"?

[Tom Graham]

Blurring is good, also consider darkening a BG. Too light/contrast anything catches our eye. The classic "burn" tool works fine in many places.
Tom

[John Chardine]

Hi- I'd be totally happy with the BG you have- I don't think it's distracting at all. Imagine the scene without the feeder. Now you are talking! However, to stick to the topic, Doug has provided an excellent methodology.

[Grady Weed]

I also like your first post as to the background. Of course, as you grow in taste and skill level, you will soon tire of the feeder look and want more birds in flowers, trees etc. Welcome to BPN and for having the courage to post and ask questions. It's how we learn.

[Roy Priest]

When I copy the selection to its own layer (Cmd-J) I lose the selection unless I save it as a named selection first. What did you do in the step where you "activated the selection"?

Command (mac) or Control (pc) Click on the layer and the selection is re-activated.

[Elliotte Rusty Harold]

Command (mac) or Control (pc) Click on the layer and the selection is re-activated.

Nope, that doesn't happen for me. Command-click on the original layer selects the entire layer, not what T selected before. :-(

[Roy Priest]

Cmd click to activate the selection on the layer you just created with the cmd J step, then click on the original layer and you will see the selection.

[Doug Brown]

Let me try again. Make your feeder selection and type Cmd J (new layer via copy). Now Cmd click the thumbnail for the new layer, and you should see marching ants around your selection. Next do a simple click on the Background layer, and the marching ant area should still be selected (but now the ants will be marching on the Background layer). Type Cmd Shift I to invert the selection and then refine the edge, making sure that you don't have any of the bird or feeder visible in your selection. Use Cmd J again, and you will create a middle layer that contains only the background (but not the bird or the feeder). Apply your Gaussian blur to this layer.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

What techniques would you use to blur it out, and make it a little more uniform? This is really a two part question:

1. How would you select the background with a soft enough edge that the transition is not apparent?
2. Having selected it, what tools would you use to blur it out?

Elliotte,

Greetings. As an alternate to blurring the background you might try just flattening the contrast of the bg. I used Lab mode curves here:



In the "Lightness" channel adjust the endpoint sliders to literally flatten the image (after selecting for bg, I just used a quick magic wand on the bg). Adjust darker or lighter as you wish. In a similar fashion one can flatten the saturation but you would need to add a point at 0,0 to keep the white balance (at least for the neutrals).

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Tom Graham]

Flattening contrast BG, nice trick Michael, have to remember it. Seems in some ways more "natural" than lots of blur, keeps a hint of tree twigs there.
Tom