Iris Blur in Photoshop CS6

There are three new Blur Tools in Photoshop CS6. The three blurs allow a portion of the image to remain sharp and blurs the rest with a nice fade effect. This is vast improvement. Earlier a selection had to be made and then a blur applied. This has become much simpler in CS6.

The eyes and lips in this image are sharp while the rest of the face has progressively blurred. This is the effect that the Iris Blur creates.

I will be using this image to demonstrate the Iris Blur.

Step 1 : Go to Filter>Blur>Iris Blur. It is the second of the Blurs. The others are Field Blur and Tilt Shift.

Step 2 : The Iris Blur filter opens. It is in the shape of an iris. The mid point is where the image will remain sharp. The four white points are from where the blurring will occur with a fade. Note there are four points on the outer circle. Each of these points can be moved. By default the Iris Blur opens in the middle of the image.

Step 3 : The Blur gallery is at the right of Photoshop.

Step 4 : The Blur slider is set to 15 pixels by default. If you drag the slider to the right the blur will increase.

Step 5 : You can see where the mid point is remains sharp. The blurring begins from outside the four white points.

Step 6 : Alternately place the cursor in the middle and drag the white circle. You will be able to increase or decrease it as also the blurring.

Step 7 : I am moving the mid point to the eye with the cursor.

Step 8 : You can compress the 'iris' by dragging down the outer ring or up.

Step 9 : I am placing the cursor in the middle and increasing the blur to 15 by dragging.

Step 10 : I am dragging the point on the right in the outer ring to compress the iris.

Step 11 : You can move the white points outward or inwards. The white points are from where the blurring occurs with a fade.

Step 12 : You can also manipulate the white point on the outer ring to make the 'iris' a square by dragging up.

 

But I will let the outer ring remain as an iris.

Step 13 : If you move the cursor you will see that it forms a pin. You can set pins elsewhere where you want the portion to remain sharp. I have set a pin on the lips.

Step 14 : I have compressed the outer circle.

Step 15 : I am setting the Blur at 10 by dragging the inner circle.

Step 16 : I am hovering the cursor over the right eye. The cursor turns into a pin.

Step 17 : I am clicking on the right eye with the pin or cursor.

Step 18 : I have compressed the outer ring by dragging inwards.

Step 19 : Click OK in the top panel.

The finished image. The eyes and lips remain sharp while the rest of the face has gradually blurred. As I said before this is a very useful tool for creating effects like this.

The Tilt Shift Blur tutorial is here
The Field Blur tutorial is here

Other photoshop tutorials are here

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Adaptive Wide Angle Filter in Photoshop CS6

One of the new Filters in Photoshop CS6 is the Adaptive Wide Angle Filter which allows straightening of curved lines which a fish eye lens would give. The fish eye lens effect is great, but sometimes you may not want it. The effect can be removed. 

This is the corrected image. The fish eye image is below.

This is an image taken with a fish eye lens. The letter box in the foreground and the buildings all have a curved line from the fish eye effect. Could it be possible to straighten them? Yes it can be done in Photoshop CS6.

Step 1 : Go to Filter >Adaptive Wide Angle.

Step 2 : The Adaptive Wide Angle Filter dialogue opens.

Step 3 : Look at the right top side. There is Correction. 

Step 4 : You will find a drop down menu from Correction. I have clicked on Fisheye.

Step 5 : I have not clicked on OK as yet, but the photo has already been corrected to a great extent.

Step 6 : Click the Constrain Tool.

Step 7 : I have clicked with the Constrain Tool at the bottom and top of the Letter Box. The letter box is automatically straightened.

Step 8 : I have clicked on the building at the left and clicked on the bottom and top with the Constrain Tool straightening it.

Step 9 : I have clicked on the bottom and top of the building at the right with the Constrain Tool straightening it.

Step 10 : After straightening as many curved lines as possible, click OK.

The image looks like this.

Step 11 : Click the Magic Wand Tool.

Step 12 : Click the Magic Wand+SHIFT and click all the blank spaces to select them all.

Step 13 : Go to Select>Modify>Expand.

Step 14 : I have set the Expand By to 10 pixels. Click OK.

Step 15 : The marching ants expand as you can see.

Step 16 : Go to Edit>Fill.

Step 17 : Set the Use to Content Aware. Click OK.

Step 18 : Content Aware fills in the missing pixels, but does not do a perfect job. Look at the top corner and the bottom. But it has done its best.

Step 19 : Click the Patch Tool.

Step 20 : Make a selection. where the building appears in the sky.

Step 21 : Move the selection to a patch of empty sky.

Step 22 : Press CTRL+D to deselect. The building has disappeared. The sky looks perfect.

Step 23 : The bottom of the image presents presents a problem so I am cropping it out.

The straightened image using the Adaptive Wide Angle Filter.

Other Photoshop tutorials are here 

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Content Aware Move Tool in PS CS6

Content Aware has been introduced some time ago in Photoshop CS series. It is taken a step further in Photoshop CS 6. You can move a portion of an image to another place and Photoshop fills in the hole left behind by sampling pixels from the surrounding areas. Though this is an amazing and very useful tool, it works with certain kinds of images. When it does it makes a good job of it.

I will be using this stock image. You will find it here It belongs to ideea

Note that the background is quite simple. I propose to move the girl from the middle to a side.

Step 1 : Click the Lasso Tool.

Step 2 : Draw a selection around the portion that you wish to move. You should draw keeping a bit of the background in the selection.

Step 3 : Click the Content Aware Move Tool. You can see where it is found.

Step 4 : In the top panel you will find two options --  Move and Extend. Here we will use Move.

Step 5 : In the top panel set the Adaptation to Very Loose. It is selected by default. Sometimes this will work well, sometimes the others -- Loose, Medium, Strict, Very Strict.  You will have to see which works for the image. Here we will use Very Loose.

You can see what the Content Aware Move Tool icon looks like when you place it on the image. You can see it here. It is the black icon.

Step 6 : I am moving the selection to the left with the Content Aware Move Tool selected.

Step 7 : After moving the selection press CTRL+H to hide the selection or CTRL+D to deselect. You can see Photoshop makes a good job of moving the selection. As I said before it is not flawless at all times. You should experiment with the options in Step 4 should the selection create problems. It may also be necessary to touch up the image after moving the selection. That is all.

Other Photoshop tutorials are here

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