In this video, I'm going to show you how to blur backgrounds in Photoshop.
Hi, welcome back to the Photoshop Training Channel!
I'm Jesus Ramirez.
In this video, I'm going to show you two techniques to recreate
the shallow depth of field effect in Photoshop.
In other words, I'm going to show you how to create blurry backgrounds.
The first technique will be a simple technique that beginners could use to blur their backgrounds.
And in the second technique, we're going to use a filter designed specifically to recreate
lenses inside of Photoshop, so it'll help you get a realistic blurry background.
Okay, let's get started.
We're going to work with this image here that contains a couple.
Of course, we're going to blur the background.
What I'm going to do first is duplicate the layer to work non-destructively, so I'm going
to select that and press Ctrl J, Command J on the Mac.
Then you need to select whatever you want in the image to be in focus.
In this case, the couple.
One of the best ways of doing so, is by selecting the quick selection tool and simply clicking
and dragging around the couple until they're selected.
If you're in Photoshop CC 2018 and newer, there's actually a faster way of doing this
or a way of getting you started faster, rather.
You can click on select subject, which is that button there.
When the quick selection tool is active, in Photoshop, it'll analyze your image and select
whatever it thinks the main subject is.
In this case, it did a really good job on selecting the couple.
I can refine the selection by clicking and dragging to add areas that Photoshop missed,
or I can hold down the Alt key, option on the Mac,
and click and drag to subtract from the selection.
Now, this is not going to be a cutout selection masking tutorial, so I'm not going to spend
too much time refining my selection, but you do need a good selection for both of the techniques
that I'm going to show you today.
If you don't know how to do that, I have several videos on masking.
One of which is on how to
mask difficult hair behind busy backgrounds.
I have a link to it down below in case you're interested.
Anyway, I'm not going to spend too much time with the selection.
What I'm going to do is, I'm going to go into the channel's panel, saved
because I already saved a selection.
You can save your selections from the Select Menu
and go into Save Selection, and you can
just call it "selection" or whatever you want,
press okay, and Photoshop will save it as a channel.
That's how you would save a selection, and I recommend you saving your selection in case
you need to come back and refine it later.
Anyway, so I'm going to just delete the selection because I don't need it and with this pre-made
selection, I'm going to hold control, Command on the Mac, and click to load it as a selection,
or I can go into select, load selection, and select it from the dropdown.
Obviously, remembering the shortcut is much faster, so remember to hold down Ctrl and
click on the channel thumbnail to make a selection.
I'm going to go back into the layer's panel.
Now currently, we have the couple selected.
We don't want to apply the blur filter onto the couple.
We actually want to apply it to everything but the couple, so we need to invert the selection.
To do so, you can do two things.
With the quick selection tool active, you can right click on the selection and click
on Select Inverse, or you can remember the keyboard shortcut.
Ctrl Shift I.
That's Command Shift I on the Mac.
To invert the selection.
Notice now that the edges of the canvas are selected.
That means that everything but the couple is selected and now we can go into the filter.
You can go into filter, blur gallery, tilt-Shift.
This is what we're going to use to create a realistic blurry background.
The center part, where these two solid lines are, those are the areas that will be in focus.
Then you have this dash line, so anything from the solid line to the top dash line,
or the bottom dash line will gradually be getting out of focus, and anything past that
dash line will be completely out of focus.
Then you can click and drag this center point and decide where the focus is going to start.
In this case, we'll start the focus down here where the items are closer to them, and then
click and drag this point up to gradually make this image out of focus.
What I'm doing here is I'm trying to replicate the narrow depth of field by spreading those
lines apart, which creates a more gradual blur so it's not just one sharp blur and it
looks more realistic.
You can control the blurriness by clicking and dragging on this handle, but I think that
the blur slider is easier to use, at least for me.
I'm going to set this to about 10 pixels and then press okay.
By the way, if you decide to create something using this tutorial and you upload it to Instagram,
use the hashtag PTCVids.
I would like to see what kind of blurry backgrounds you guys are creating.
Anyway, I'm going to press Ctrl D, Command D, to deselect and we have our blurry background.
Now, there's one thing that I recommend doing to finalize the effect so, it's a little more
realistic.
If you zoom in, you will notice that by blurring the background, we lost all the film grain,
and if you look at the photo, you'll notice that there is film grain there.
In order for this to be a realistic effect, we need to add some of that film grain back.
What I need to do first is bring back the selection, so I'm going to click on my pre-made
selection, and I'm going to invert it, Ctrl Shift I, Command Shift I, so that I only effect
the background when I add the film grain.
One of the best ways of adding film grain is by going into filter, camera raw filter,
clicking on the effects tab, and adding film grain.
To see what's going on, you can zoom in to around 400 or so percent, and then add film
grain so that it matches the image, right about 12 or so, and press okay.
Notice that the background now has film grain.
I'm going to press Ctrl D, Command D, to deselect, and now the image looks much more realistic.
Now there's one more thing I want to mention before we move onto the next technique.
That is, working non-destructively.
We created another layer to work non-destructively.
The tilt-Shift blur filter actually works with a smart object, but it doesn't work as
you would expect.
Let me show you what I mean by that.
I'm going to duplicate the original layer, right click, select, convert to smart object,
and then load my selection, invert it, and apply the same filter, you will see a big
difference.
In this preview, the couple's going to be blurry, but that's okay.
Once I press okay, you will notice that the filter wasn't applied to the actual couple,
just the background.
Notice the difference between a pixel layer and a smart object.
That is, that the smart object gives us a ghosting effect when we apply the filter.
I'm not really sure why that is, but that's the reason why I duplicate the layer, instead
of using a smart object, because I don't like that ghosting effect on my final image.
By the way, if you're enjoying these techniques, don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe.
Anyway, we're going to move on to the more advanced technique.
And don't get scared if you're a beginner, I'm going to take it one step at a time and
real slow so that you can understand.
But this technique is going to allow you to more accurately recreate the depth of field
that a lens will cause to blur your background.
Okay, so I'm going to work with this image here.
It's of another couple and they're at a train station.
What I'm going to do now is I'm going to use a filter called the lens blur filter.
This filter's going to create a blur based on a Depth Map that we're going to create.
Essentially, we're going to tell Photoshop how deep things are in an image using luminance
values.
Black is going to be in focus and white will be out of focus.
Let me show you one thing.
I'm going to double click on the foreground color.
Notice that true black, 100% black has a value of zero across all the RGB values.
If I drag the point up to white, notice now that we have 255.
That means that black is zero and white is 255.
50% gray is 128.
You get the idea if I drag up and down you will see those values changing, so zero to
255, black to white.
Now that's going to be really important for this filter, because we're going to create
a Depth Map that is going to use those values to tell Photoshop how deep something is.
And the filter is going to use that information to recreate what a lens would do to blur the
background.
Now I know that sounds confusing, but it's actually really easy.
I have this graphic here that will help you understand.
Notice how this graphic is implying depth by using values.
Black is closest to us and every shade of gray until it gets to white makes it seem
as if these objects are receding further into the background.
That's what we're going to create.
We're going to create a black and white image that Photoshop is going to use to interpret
depth.
We're going to delete this layer just, so we have a clean layer's panel to work with
and this is our image.
We first got to establish the background and the depth of the background.
I'm going to create a gradient overlay and we're going to select black to white.
Then, we're going to select reflected.
Now this should be somewhat familiar.
Black is in focus, white is out of focus, and the different levels of gray are different
levels of focus.
This is much like the filter that we just used a second ago.
The middle is in focus and then it gradually gets out of focus going up, and it gradually
gets out of focus going down, and I can click and drag to the side where to position this.
I'm going to click and drag it down and press okay.
The reason I dragged it down, is because that's roughly where they're standing, so that's
what would be in focus.
Just as with the last example, I'm not going to spend too much time with the selections.
If you're interested in learning more about selections, masks, and all of that, I've included
a couple videos in the description that talk all about that.
Anyway, I need to make a selection out of my subjects and I've already done that.
I'm going to make my selection, and I'm going to create a solid color, and I'm going to
make it black, because I want him in focus.
He's in focus and press okay.
See how I'm building my Depth Map?
One step at a time.
That's what you need to do in your image.
You need to look at the elements that you have and start building it one step at a time
like I'm doing here.
Now, we have another person, her, but she's not in the same depth as he is.
She's just a little bit further back, so we need to tell Photoshop that.
The way of doing that is by making her a different shade of gray, not black.
I'm going to enable this layer, and see where she's standing there.
I need to make a selection of that color, or sample that color rather.
So, I'm going to select the eyedropper tool, click on that shade of gray.
Then create a new layer, clip it to the layer below so that it only effects that layer.
Ctrl Alt G, Command option G on the Mac, and I'm going to paint with that gray over her.
I use the right bracket key on the keyboard to increase the size of my brush.
Now the arm.
The arm that's extending out, so it's going from focus to out of focus.
So, there needs to be a gradient between black and that shade of gray.
I'm just going to increase the size of my brush, and I am working with a hardness of
zero, so I'd say soft brush, and I'm just going to create this soft transition that
you see there.
It might be a little hard to see in the recording because of the compression.
But notice that if I double click on the color picker, if I select her shade of gray, we're
looking at a value of 17.
He of course is at zero, which is black.
Then there's a gradual transition from that shade of gray to black.
We're telling Photoshop how deep things are by using luminance values.
In this case, I don't have any more objects like people, cars, buildings, or whatever
But if I had something, someone else standing back here, and this is an amazing stick figure
as you can see, then they would be a different shade of gray.
The shade of gray that they would be will be the shade of gray where they're standing
on, so it would be that shade of gray.
Then you can keep doing that for all your other subjects in your photo.
In this case, I don't have anyone else, so I'm just going to delete this layer.
This is going to be our Depth Map and we need to save it as a channel.
Now, I know that sounds scary, but it's actually really easy.
All we need to do is go into the channels' panel and duplicate any one of the channels.
They're all the same, red, green, blue.
They're all the same in this case because we're working with a black and white image.
Click on any one of the channels and drag it onto the new channel icon to duplicate
it.
I'll call it PTC Depth Map, but you can call it whatever you want.
I'm going to go into the RGB view once again by clicking on RGB and click on the layer's
panel.
Now I can disable these layers because we don't need them anymore, at least for now.
I'm going to click on this layer and duplicate it to work non-destructively.
Unfortunately, this filter does not work with smart objects.
Ctrl J, Command J to duplicate, and we're going to go into filter, blur, lens blur.
This filter is like a really expensive lens inside of Photoshop and it's going to allow
you to apply the shallow depth of field effect and you can blur the background of any portrait.
What I'm going to do first is select the PTC Depth Map that I created, so this will have
whatever name you gave your Depth Map.
We're going to come back to the focal distance in a moment, because it's really important,
but before I do that I'm going to go into the radius, which controls how blurry the
background will be.
I'm just going to drag it up just so that you can see that it is in fact blurring the
background.
You can always click on the preview checkbox, you'll see the before and the after.
Now, focal blur distance.
That tells Photoshop what's in focus.
Right now, zero is in focus.
You're probably thinking, "Well, what is zero?"
Remember earlier when I mentioned that zero was black?
Well, this is telling us that black is in focus.
If I drag the slider all the way to the other side, you will see now that 255 is in focus.
255 is white.
Notice how now the foreground is blurry and the background is in focus.
I know that this may be a little hard to understand, so don't even worry about these values.
What you can do is simply hover over the image and click on whatever you want to be in focus.
If I click on him, the blur focal distance is now at zero.
If I click on her, it's 17.
Remember earlier when I clicked on her shade of gray?
It was a value of 17 across the RGB values, so that's what this 17 represents.
If I click on the background, you'll see that it's 255, and then this shade of gray is 83,
this shade of gray here is 31.
That is what's happening there, you're clicking and selecting the shade of gray and that's
what's in focus.
I usually don't use this invert checkbox, it basically inverts that slider, and now
255 is in focus, but it's shown as zero.
I think that's even more confusing, so I usually just work with the blur focal distance and
click on the area that I want to be in focus.
Of course, this filter is referencing the Depth Map for these luminance values.
This section here, the iris, that's basically trying to replicate a lens inside of Photoshop.
First, we have the shape and it's got all these different shapes.
You don't really need to worry about what that means.
All you need to know if that the higher the number, the blurrier things get.
I'm going to increase the radius all the way to 100 and that's the blurriest the background
gets.
If I change my shape to seven, notice how it gets blurrier.
To eight, even blurrier.
If I bring it back down to three, notice that it's not as blurry.
I would leave it at the default, which is six, and just adjust the radius.
I don't think you're going to need to go past 100 with the default setting.
Anyway, the next two sliders also control the lens, the curvature, and rotation.
Once again, they don't really affect the image too much, so I usually don't adjust those
sliders.
Then we have a really important section, which is the specular highlights.
Whenever you blur the background, you also blur the whites of the image, so if you have
a specular highlight it will no longer be a specular highlight, and it will look a little
unrealistic.
With these settings, you can tell Photoshop how bright your specular highlights are going
to be and what the threshold is.
Right now, it's saying, anything that is white at 255," remember 255 is white, "Should be
a specular highlight and the brightness will be a brightness of 24."
I can click and drag the slider to the left and notice how now anything that is a value
of 108 or higher will be considered a specular highlight, and it will get brighter.
And I can increase this, and you'll see how the background gets brighter.
This creates some really interesting effects, but they're really there to make sure that
your specular highlights in your images look realistic.
I'm just going to turn this off, because I don't really have any specular highlights
in my image that I want to keep.
Just as with the first example, blurring the background eliminates all the film grain,
so this filter has film grain built in.
I'm going to zoom in so that you could see, and I can just add film grain from here.
See that, all you need to do is just try to match it.
You can use the different settings to match whatever film grain your photo has.
Monochromatic means that it's film grain with no color, and that's what I have in this image,
so I have that checked.
I'm going to zoom back in to fit on screen and it looks like the film grain might be
a little too much, so I'm just going to bring it down to three or something a little more
realistic.
The radius might be a bit too high, so I just want to keep it at a realistic level, so maybe
36 and press okay.
Now we have the before and the after.
I'm not sure if you work with Adobe Dimension or not, but Adobe Dimension actually exports
a Depth Map whenever you export something as PSD, a Photoshop file, and you can use
it with this filter.
Let me show you what I mean by that.
This is a PSD that was exported by Adobe Dimension And we have a background layer with this 3D
car, and in the additional layer's group that Adobe Dimension exports, you have depth information.
That's a Depth Map.
This means that you can apply the lens blur filter to your 3D renders with Photoshop and
Adobe Dimension.
By the way, I have a free course on Adobe Dimension here on YouTube.
I'll post the link to it down below in the description.
Let me know in the comments which of these techniques were new to you and which you plan
to use on your projects.
If this is your first time at the Photoshop Training Channel, then don't forget to subscribe.
Thank you so much for watching and I will see you in the next tutorial.