Make it stand out?!

[Bertje]

Hi all,

I have picture of a person in front of a background. They are both just as sharp. I want to make the person stand out more by blurring and darkening the background. But how do I do that without getting sharp edges?

I know how to make paths and selections and stuff. But I get those hard edges where you can see what is blurred and what not. And the hair is difficult as well.

Any tips?? Thanks a lot!!

Bertje.

[James Dodge]

Bertje,

Feather your selection.

james

[dave milbut]

varifocus plugin from andromeda. i think you can get a free demo:

<http://www.andromeda.com/>

[Colin Walls]

You are right that blurring and darkening the background may make the subject stand out, but you may also which to try a little desaturation - with some subjects, their colour brings them out.

[JR]

There's also the defringe function, that is suppose to remove the hard edge.
Play with that feature (I believe it is under the "edit" pull down menu)

Also, wouldn't lightening the background make the forground stand out
better? (the further things are away from you the "lighter" it appears --
for instance, think of mountains, the closer the mountains, the darker, or
more saturated they seem).







"Bertje" <martijn@usa.com> wrote in message
news:1dea2c1e.-1@WebX.la2eafNXanI...

> Hi all,
>
> I have picture of a person in front of a background. They are both just as

sharp. I want to make the person stand out more by blurring and darkening
the background. But how do I do that without getting sharp edges?

>
> I know how to make paths and selections and stuff. But I get those hard

edges where you can see what is blurred and what not. And the hair is
difficult as well.

>
> Any tips?? Thanks a lot!!
>
> Bertje.
>

[r_harvey]

with some subjects, their colour brings them out.




Increasing the saturation on the foreground, combined with fading the background (instead of darkening), makes the main subject stand-out, without making it look like it was photographed with a single electronic flash on the camera.

[ninjasavant]

quick mask, use a soft edge brush