Most photo editors have some capability to do selections and blurring. Editors like Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and The Gimp have pretty extensive options in this area. So if you don't like how the focus came out in your image you have many options for making a change. The ends and outs of making a selection and various blurring options are beyond my ability to cover in a brief post. I will say that gaining some skill in making selections will add greatly to your ability to get your photos to look the way you intend.
Along with the blur brush Photoshop has a blurring filter with several options. Here I used the motion blur option. It lets you change the degree of the motion blur and the angle of the blur.
The motion blur filter in Photoshop. It has been a while since I have used Photoshop Elements, however I seem to remember that it had similar options.
The Gimp photo editor also has a blurring filter with several options. If you are looking for a photo editor The Gimp may be a good option. It is free and has many of the same capabilities as Photoshop.
My main idea with this post is just to introduce some options to some who may not have heard of them. If you do a search enough info exists on this topic to keep anyone busy for many days.
I do a little tweaking in Photoshop Elements now, which was a big step for me. For years I wanted the photo just as it came out of the camera and back from the processor. Now I'll correct color and contrast and even crop for better framing. But I'm not sure I'm ready for wholesale surgery such as adding background blur! I wonder what it is that blocks me; I don't understand it.
ReplyDeleteI think that what got me starting on learning Photoshop was having some success in using it to restore some old family photos. That was more than ten years ago. Still it took a while before I used it much with my newer photos. Although from having done work in a traditional darkroom I was familiar with a lot of the basic concepts, I still found Photoshop to be a little intimidating. Especially the parts that veer more into the graphic arts. Still once I got a taste of how it could help me make my images look more closely like I was trying to communicate the learning became more rewarding.
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