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Message: <blockquote data-quote="STM" data-source="post: 559464" data-attributes="member: 12827">For those of you asked, this is how you do it. I have never used Adobe Elements so I don't know if you can do all of this with that program. Pretty much all of this is pretty basic stuff so I am guessing you can. I also use Window and not a Mac so any short cut keys may not work with the Mac. 1.    Carefully select the subject you want to remain sharp. I use the polygonal select tool in PS and set the feather to either 0 or 1 pixel. Don’t do any more or your subject’s out line will look fuzzy and the whole thing will be a waste. This is probably the most critical part of the whole process as everything else is built on this first step. Success or failure of the process will depend on how carefully you isolate what you want to remain sharp.2.    Once you have carefully selected the image, hit “Q” to do a quick mask to see if this is what you want. Hitting “Q” again removes the mask3.    Although there is always more than one way to do pretty much anything in PS, using an Alpha Channel, though it is more work, will get rid fo the “halo” you will always get around a subject when you use and kind of blurring tool with PS (Box Blur, Gaussian Blur or in the case of what we are going to use, Lens Blur)4.    The first thing you will do after you make your selection, is to make your Alpha Channel and your “Depth Map”. If you have ever worked with layer masks before you know that anything that is black in the mask will be hidden and anything in the white will be revealed. 5.    Make sure you have both the Layers and Channels Windows selected when you do this because you will be switching back and forth between them. 6.    The next thing you are going to do is turn your selection black. So, under the Layers window go to the New Adjustment Layer Icon (that little icon that looks like a half black and half white circle) and choose “solid color”. Make sure your color is completely black. 7.    The next step is to create another layer that will have a seamless graduation from sharp to blurry so go to the back to the New Adjustment Layer tool and click on gradient. This creates a second layer which will work with the first one to get your progressive blurring. Click on the graduated rectangle in the top of the gradient tool and make sure you click on the “Reset Gradient” and then click OK. 8.    Click on the rectangle again and adjust the degree of graduation change. There are 4 little markers, similar to what you see in a word processing program to indicate tabs. Slide the little white one on the bottom right to the left to adjust the graduation. Remember that white will be to slide it, however you can go back in mid process and readjust if necessary.  Press OK to get out of that and OK once again to get out of the Gradient box. 9.    Next you want to group these two layers you just made. You can “ungroup” them if you want to go back and adjust the gradient. Click on the gradient layer and move it down below the black outline of the subject layer. Now hold down the shift key, select both and then hit Ctrl G to group them together. 10.    Now you have to go to the Channels Panel. You will see 4 boxes, RGB, and Red, Green and Blue. Choose any of the three colors, it really doesn’t make any difference, and duplicate it by dragging it down to the Duplicate Channel Icon. Double click on this duplicate channel and rename it. You can choose anything you want but I just rename it Depth Map. This will come in handy for finding it once you start to blur the background.  Go back and click on the RGB box at the top, 11.    Go back to the Layers panel and disable the Group you made (click on the little eye to disable it). Now since blurring is destructive to the image, make another layer. Click on the layer marked “Background” and hit CTRL J to make another layer. This is the one you will be blurring. If you goof it up, you can always just delete the layer and make a new one and start again.  12.    With the duplicate layer selected, go to Filter, Blur, Lens Blur. I normally select “None” is the depth map box before I start and when I like the amount of blur, I go to the name of the channel I created. It is entirely up to you how much you want to blur the image. Again, the more you do it the more you will get a feel for it. It is very important you have “Preview” checked so you can see what your results will look like. This is an easy step to forget but you will soon realize you did it when you don’t see any changes! 13.    Next the Depth Map rectangle (about a quarter down the box) and select your Alpha Channel (the one I named Depth Map). Now you will be able to see what your image will look like. Play with the sliders there to achieve the look you want. Radius increases or decreases the blur. The rest; shape, blade curvature, etc, don’t seem to have much noticeable effect. One that does have some effect is the Specular Highlights one. You can play with this one to achieve a smoother bokeh, but the effect is subtle from all the way left to all the way right. I prefer to use the blur tool once I am done to soften harsher specular highlights. Lastly is noise. For those of you who longer shoot and scan film this may not have any use, but if you do shoot an indoor at a higher ISO, you may see some noise. The blurring will eradicate any noise so it will look out of place if you leave it like that. You can put some noise back in to match what you lost. 14.    You can clean up any other areas with the Blur Tool if you need to. That is pretty much it. Practice it several times and once you become comfortable you can play around some with some of the settings to customize things to better suit your tastes. If you have any questions or get stuck, drop me a line. Once you practice it a few times it is pretty easy. Again, the most important part of this whole thing is getting your selection right. If you do not do a good job on that, nothing else you do can fix it.</blockquote>

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