"vaseline" effect

[MervJones]

Hi,

Brand new to Photoshop.
Years back, I used to do portraits and weddings, and I am about to start again, this time in digital. There was one stock photo in film that was done using a piece of plastic to cover the lens, with a circle cut out of the middle. The plastic was then roughened with sandpaper. The effect was that the center was perfectly in focus, and sharp, but the photo would gradually blur, until the ededges would be totally blured. The same effect could bew done by smearing vaseline on clear glass but it would be softer. Can someone tell me how to get the same effect in PS

[MervJones]

OK, I'm really a newbee

Can you go into a little more detail, please

[Patty Clarke]

Hi Merv,

I'm what would be considered "an intermediate newbie" so I wanted to share a few thoughts...

Photoshop is a really powerful but complex program. If you are "really a newbee", you must (in my opinion) get the basics down. I took a course at the local junior college. There is also online courses you can do. Adobe's Photoshop Class in a Book has a CD to go along with it.

But, there was also a time when I just wanted to accomplish a certain function in photoshop before I learned the basics.
Some pretty great people in the forum walked me through it, so I'll do the same for you by detailing the simple method that Mac recommended.

(Mac, hope you don't think I'm being out of line in "detailing" your method---I wanted to help by saving you the time.)

Simple way:




Oval/circular selection of sharp part.
Feather (10-50 pixels depending on rez of file)
Select Inverse
Gaussian Blur, play with intensity.

Mac

1. Open your photo.

2. Use the elliptical marquee tool (located in fly-out menu under rectangle tool) to select the area of the photo that you want to be sharp. Setting the feathering radius to pixel width you want will start the first transition of blur.

3. Go to "Select" (on menu bar)>Inverse
What this does is maintain the integrity of the sharp image within the oval selected area and the effects you apply will only change the outer area.

4. Go to "Filters">Blur>Gaussian Blur
and then you will be given options to "play with."

If you need better info, please feel free to ask, but I can't stress enough how important it is to learn the basics.

Hope this helps,

Patty

[Sonny Donato]

I'm kind of an "intremediate newbie" myself(barely even intermediate!), but I think the method described in the above posts would only give you the effect of it being clear in the middle where you drew your oval, and fuzzy outside of that. (Sorry if I'm wrong!)

What you want, I believe, is for it to gradually turn to blurred, from a clear center.

What I might suggest then, is:

1) Make a duplicate of the layer (right-click on it in the Layers Pallete and select Duplicate Layer)

2) Select the top layer, and blur it in the method described in the above posts (but without making an elliptical selection. Just blur the whole layer)

3) Follow the instructions in this thread: "How to make a gradual opacity fade on a layer"

Mathias Vejerslev "How to make a gradual opacity fade on a layer" 4/30/03 4:49pm </cgi-bin/webx?50@@.1de8f0cd>

(Where it says to use a gradient, you would probably want to use a radial or diamond graident to achieve the effect you are seeking)

My apologies if a) my instructions/descriptions are too complex and can be achieved much easier than this, or
b) I'm flat out wrong about how to do it anyway.

Like I said, I'm new to this too, but I am trying to learn faster by figuring out other people's questions as well as my own!

Good luck,
Sonny

PS. Those with more experience, please feel free to correct me where I go wrong!

[MervJones]

Thanks Mac, Patty and Sonny. You all helped, and I learned something new from all of your suggestions. Sonny's was the closest to the effect that I wanted to achieve.
Patty - I've been asked to do a wedding, and want to get that under my belt, at the same time, take a course in Photoshop. Up until now, I've played around with Paint Shop Pro, which I thought was good, but Photoshop beats it hands down.

[Patty Clarke]

Great Merv,

Sonny was correct and I made reference of his technique to try as well. This is a great learning venue Merv and look forward to seeing you around.

Hi to you also, Sonny--don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting before.

Merv there's some other cool techniques that may be good for you to look into for your wedding gig. Vignette edges and collage techniques are just a few that come to mind.

Good luck,

Patty

[MervJones]

Patty,

The effects in photography is only limited to your imagination. I used to do my own D&P and some of the Vignettes that could be created were fairly easy. One of my favourites was to enlarge and expose the photo, but then paint on the developer diagonally with a soft brush. You ended with light strokes about an inch and a half in from the edges, then watch it develop. When it was developed to the correct level, you then stopped it. The effect was as if you had "painted" the image on the paper, as you could see the brush strokes. These are effects I want to now start using, but before then, I have to learn the basics (steep learning curve, though)

[Patty Clarke]

Awesome Merv,

The advantage that you'll have over me and some others is that it sounds like you have a great deal of talent for photography. You are going to love photoshop. It is an amazing program.

Look forward to interacting with you.

Patty

p.s. How are your computer skills in general with file management and searching for knowledge on the web? There are so many incredible places and things you will learn by following the threads in this forum. People recommend other sites and tutorials etc.

We just finished a contest in the lounge where everyone started with an image pack of five photos and then created their artwork. There are some really good tutorials attached. Check it out.

<http://www.thephotoshoplounge.com/contest/gallery.asp>

Patty

[MervJones]

Patty,
My background - I work with computers all day long as a systems analyst. I am my company's knowledge base on MS Office tools, with VB and VBA skills. 25 years ago, in the UK, I used to create computer graphics for games, and I wish that the computing power that's available now, was available then. It's laughable that you could create really complex games on 8K of memory, when you now need 128 MEG to just run Windows XP.

You are right about the Internet. It's limit is only in your search skills. Now that I've decided to take up photography again, I want to learn (almost) everything about PS so that delivering the finished product is second nature - the same belief holds true for taking the photos. You shouldn't have to be concerned about the camera's controls. It should be an extension of your eyes and hands. You should concentrate on the composition and the needed "mood" of the photo, not "Is it in focus, and is the f-stop correct". It's what your eyes do naturally, so why can't the camera. The beauty of digital is that you have even more control of the final image. I wish it was around 25 years ago.

[MervJones]

Due to my work, I have been on countless courses learning VB, VBA, C++, server management, XP, .NET ......etc, but I have always felt information overload, and that I learn more by experimenting and trying to build one program/technique. That's why I asked how to build one "effect" in PS. From that, I have learnt more by experiment than I could ever learn in a "course"
I offer a trade. if anyone needs any info on any of the above, I will gladly help, in exchange for one more snippet of info on various techniques in PS.
I have found the following websites useful so far for PS
GurusNetwork.com
Russellbrown.com
The PSG Forum
Any others will be most welcome.
Thanks

[Patty Clarke]

Merv,

You're worlds ahead of my computer knowledge so I bet you're going to be able to find your way with photoshop. Look through the previous forum threads and you'll find lots of references for techniques and tutorial sites etc. Look at the FAQ etc.

Patty

[Colin Walls]

Merv:
I have a "techie" background like you and love the challenge of understanding PS. Something I noticed is that there are many non-technical people who seem to get great results from PS. It seems to be very receptive to being played with - doing things that "feel right". I think that's why there are often multiple ways to achieve similar results. In other words, don't try to learn "everything", as that will actually limit you - who needs to know 3 ways to do everything? Focus on addressing specific problems/challenges.

PS is probably the most emotion-affecting software I have ever come across. Try to enjoy that aspect too.

[pope]

Merv...I used to shoot in the greeting card market; vaseline on most everything. Very messy. Now I just smear vaseline on a 3-inch square of glass and take a picture of the glass.

Then composite the image with another image. I like it better than gaussian blur which is a little too uniform. It's still messy but I don't have to carry it in my camera bag anymore.

[Colin Walls]

Pope:
This is a good tip. You said you take a picture of the glass - do you mean it is backlit or what?

[pope]

Soft crosslit usually. I got a bunch of glass squares, smeared each in different patterns and shot each closeup. Not world class but it beats messy.

Photoshop then provides an infinite number of ways to combine these images with whatever other images that I want to add a controlled blur.

For a more weird effect I add food coloring to the vaseline.

I should mention that the greeting card industry apparently has lost their appetite for vaseline-enhancement :-)

PS KY Jelly works equally well. I let my wife buy it for me.

[David Roberts]

Hi Guys

While reading this thread, I kept thinking that some years ago I had seen a screw-on filter somewhere that has the exact same effect that Merv is looking for.

Am I dreaming or is there such a thing still available for this type of technique?

David Roberts

[Helen Polson]

One of my favourites was to enlarge and expose the photo, but then paint
on the developer diagonally with a soft brush. You ended with light strokes
about an inch and a half in from the edges, then watch it develop. When
it was developed to the correct level, you then stopped it. The effect
was as if you had "painted" the image on the paper, as you could see the
brush strokes.




That sounds like a great technique- I must try that next time I'm in the darkroom! I know I could replicate it within Photoshop but I'm enjoying learning the photogrpahy craft the hard way :)