Post by c130 on Sept 21, 2008 23:01:33 GMT
Skill rating: INTERMEDIATE - proficiency with pen tool recommended
Photoshop version: CS and later
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Here's an interesting technique.
You take a photo - ideally one from above a scene - and use Lens Blur to make the scene look like a miniature model. Here's some examples:
digital-artist-toolbox.com/?p=24
Procedure is very simple for most scenes. Basically, you make a wide, blurred selection across the full length of the image, invert the selection, and apply the lens blur filter. Then you increase the contrast and colour saturation and it looks like a bright little plastic model.
Here's the best tutorial I can find:
www.tiltshiftphotography.net/photoshop-tutorial.php
Protip:
For scenes that aren't looking down, ie. where you want to focus on an elevated target in the middle of the image, you'll have to make your fuzzy selection, then use the pen tool to make a selection around the object you want to focus on.
Example. Once that first selection was made of the ground the woman was standing on, she had to be excluded from the area that was going to be blurred.
1) Make your fuzzy selection.
2) Invert it, so the background and foreground are selected, and not the area you want in focus.
3) Select the pen tool and set it to Paths mode.
4) Trace around the outline of the object you want in focus.
5) Right click on the path and select Make Selection.
6) Under Operation, choose Subtract From Selection and press OK.
7) Apply Lens Blur.
Protip 2:
After applying the blur, apply a Sharpen filter to make the in-focus part of the image crisper.
Photoshop version: CS and later
-----------------------------------------
Here's an interesting technique.
You take a photo - ideally one from above a scene - and use Lens Blur to make the scene look like a miniature model. Here's some examples:
digital-artist-toolbox.com/?p=24
Procedure is very simple for most scenes. Basically, you make a wide, blurred selection across the full length of the image, invert the selection, and apply the lens blur filter. Then you increase the contrast and colour saturation and it looks like a bright little plastic model.
Here's the best tutorial I can find:
www.tiltshiftphotography.net/photoshop-tutorial.php
Protip:
For scenes that aren't looking down, ie. where you want to focus on an elevated target in the middle of the image, you'll have to make your fuzzy selection, then use the pen tool to make a selection around the object you want to focus on.
Example. Once that first selection was made of the ground the woman was standing on, she had to be excluded from the area that was going to be blurred.
1) Make your fuzzy selection.
2) Invert it, so the background and foreground are selected, and not the area you want in focus.
3) Select the pen tool and set it to Paths mode.
4) Trace around the outline of the object you want in focus.
5) Right click on the path and select Make Selection.
6) Under Operation, choose Subtract From Selection and press OK.
7) Apply Lens Blur.
Protip 2:
After applying the blur, apply a Sharpen filter to make the in-focus part of the image crisper.
