Outstanding!

By: Knut Kubenz

Page 1 of 1

There are times in our photography when we’d like to make parts of the image stand out more. While there are many different ways of doing this, using a blur filter of some kind along with a Layer Mask in Photoshop is the easiest and most consistent. Let’s begin.

Figure 1 - Original image

Start by opening your favorite image in Photoshop (Figure 1).
Make a copy of the image on a separate Layer, Cmd/Ctrl + J (Layer 1).

Figure 2 - Layer 1 in place as the copy of the Background Layer
With Layer 1 active, go to Filter > Blur > Lens Blur.
Leave the settings to their default except for Blur Focal Distance set to 160 with high resolution images (300 PPI) and about half this amount for low resolution images (72 PPI).
Click OK.
Your image should at this point be totally blurred.
Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All to bring up a Layer Mask on Layer 1.
Key the letter B to bring up the Brushes Palette and choose an appropriate sized Brush at 100% Opacity.
Key in the letter D to bring up the default settings of Black as the Foreground color and White as the Background color.
With the Layer Mask active, begin Painting the areas you want to stand out, the rest will remain blurred.

Figure 3 - Painting on the Layer Mask to bring out image detail

There you are. If you want to use Blur Tools other than Lens Blur, the process works the same way. So experiment a bit and make this technique your own for outstanding results.

Figure 4 - The final effect