Digiscrapping.net - Depth Of Field

Creating the Illusion of Depth of Field in Paint Shop Pro Have you envied that look that the DSLR cameras can get with special lenses? Or perhaps you have a picture with some clutter in the background that is too distracting from the focus of your image. This tutorial will teach you have to get that soft look in your background using Paint Shop Pro.

This is the picture I will be working on

I love how my daughter is the focus of the picture, but there is some distractions in the background that I could do without.

First, open the picture you want to work on. Click on Shift + D to duplicate your image. Then close out your original. That way you won't save over the original in case you need it for something else.

First you want to use your lasso tool and select around the object you want to be the focus of the picture. I have selected my daughter; you can see the dotted line around her.

Next, right click on the background layer and choose promote selection to layer.

Click on Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur

Your setting here is going to depend on how soft/blurred you want the background to be. I used 10 for this picture. On other pictures I have used 4 for just a little softness, and I have gone as high as 20 for a lot of blur. You can start at 10 and go from there.

This next part I like to do, but if you don't like the look that it creates, it is definitely optional. Just another effect you can give the photo.

Right click on your bottom layer and add New Raster Layer

Leave the settings in the box the same and click on OK.

Go to your materials palate and click on the top box. Out of the tabs at the top, click on gradient. Click on the box showing your gradient choice and it will drop down with all of the gradients you have. Look for one that says Black-White, if you don't have one named that, you should have a black and white gradient that came with PSP. Select it.

Set your angle to either 0 or 180. So your lines are horizontal. This is something you can reverse. Different look for different pictures. I chose the white on top for this picture.

Use your paint bucket and fill that new raster layer your created.

Make sure your gradient layer is selected. Above your layers you will see a box that says Normal. Click on it and it will drop down with your layer options. I chose soft light for this picture.

Right click on one of the layers - Merge/Merge Visible.

Right click on your merged layer and select duplicate

Now you are going to want to use your smudge brush. On mine, it's between the paint brush and the eraser. Click on the little down arrow and it will show you many brushes you can choose from. Choose the finger that looks like it is smudging.

I use the brush settings that you see at the top. Make sure your opacity is set semi-low. Around 40-50. You can use a smaller brush size if you want to.

Now go around and lightly smudge where there is a harsh line between your extraction and the soft background. You don't need to do much, just smudge a little bit. I always smudge in small perpendicular strokes versus smudging parallel to the extraction.

After you have gone all the way around the extraction, right click on one of your layers and merge visible.

Save and your done!