First snowfall -- question with background

[Kathy O]

Is there anyway I can blur this background using the Lightroom 3.5?
I have a point and shoot digital camera and the background did not blur like I wanted it to and was wondering if I could use my lightroom program to blur it for me. Thank you for your help.

[JPS]

Hi Kathy,
I don't think you know how good this picture is, IMHO.
The background is just out of focus and perhaps as you say could do with a little bit more. I would think you could blur it more in Lightroom, even thou I cannot say for sure, as I don't use it; you certainly can in Photoshop or Elements.
If you do make any changes please re-post, I think it's fabulous. Well done.

[Kathy O]

Thank you JPS for the compliment, I only have a trial version of the lightroom so I am not very familiar with it yet and not sure if it is the program that I want to go with. I am think about giving the elements a trial run also. Again thanks for the compliment.

[Andrew76]

This is not ideal, but in Lightroom, I don't know any other way to do it. If you wanted to spend a little more time than I did (about 1 minute), you could probably make it look a little nicer than this.


Use the 'Adjustment Brush' tool, under 'Effects' select 'Sharpness' - move the slider to the right as much as you like. Make sure to click the 'Auto Mask' button, and paint away!

[Kathy O]

Thankyou Andrew!

[Ken MT]

Then in Elements 9. Copy background to new layer, add Gaussian blur to suit, and erase the blur with eraser tool over areas that you want sharp. (Liked the origional though)

[Poaceae]

Andrew, I think you mean move the sharpness slider to the left. A -100 setting really blurs the area.

[Andrew76]

Ooops, good catch John. I can't get my lefts and rights straight anymore.

[herbert]

Hi Kathy,

Negative sharpness will not really blur very much. Negative clarity will have a very large blur effect. Have a try using each one.

Note that when you brush an area in Lightroom you can see where you have brushed by adding an overlay (press O). To remove from the overlay just brush with the Alt key held down. To adjust the effect you have brushed on you hover over the small grey circle that marks the point where you first started brushing. Click this to reactivitate the brushed area. You can add to it, remove from it and adjust the sliders to change the effect.

You can also add multiple brush areas by deactivating the brush, activating again and starting a new one.

Regards,

Alex

[dje]

Hi Kathy

I too think the original image was fine. Another thing you could consider would be to reduce the brightness of the background to draw more attention to the foreground. It would take some patience to do this though because of all the fine spikes on the foreground bush. I'm afraid I can't comment on wheteher this could be done in Lightroom because I dont use it.

Cheers Dave

[rpcrowe]

The extra blurring helps. I also think that toning down the brightness of the BG might also focus more attention on the snow covered boughs.

[jamn4ex]

I think the original shot looks great. I would not do anything to the background , if it was gonna change the color of it, These colors work very well for me .

[Paw Paw Bill]

I don't think you can do this effectively in Lightroom. The program is not designed for this. That's under the pervue of Photoshop. Adobe makes them both and intended them to be used together instead of one replacing the other. I lean on them both so much, I can't do without them. This leaves you with having to go to another program for greater blur effect.

[Paw Paw Bill]

This has had blur added by Photoshop. I did this so you could see how it would look in case this is or is not where you want to go with it.

This original was good, but if you want blur, this is a sample of what to expect.

[JPS]

Bill,
stop teasing Can't wait to see what you have done but cannot see the picture. Is it just me that has a problem?

[Paw Paw Bill]

This is my sample from photoshop
I was having problems with the protocols for uploading on this forum. Sure is different from my others.

[Paw Paw Bill]

I did take it to a greater extent but backed off to this. It just starts to look like mud behind the branch when you blur to the point of completly losing form to the items behind.

As I said earlier, I just wanted to give you an idea of what to expect. Beyond this really starts to look poor. But, that's in my taste, you may want to go there, but not in LightRoom.

[JPS]

Bill,
well worth the work you have put in here, picture looks good.
As I said in an earlier post, I like this picture very much in it's original form, but the tweak you have made (IMHO) just finishes it off.
Kathy what's your opinion, this is your 'baby'?

[Kathy O]

First of all I want to thank all of you for your helpful suggestions and compliments. I really like the original but with that said what Bill did with my photo is what I was looking for, IMO it made the branches pop and that is what I was looking for. Either way I do think it is a good photo. Bill . . . when you are talking photoshop, which program are you using?

[Paw Paw Bill]

I have Adobe Photoshop 5.5 and also Adobe LightRoom 3.5 as my main post processiing programs. I've got a few plug-ins and a few other minor programs for some of the lighter work. I really like the free program Iranvanview for quick full screen viewing of photos in Windows Explorer. It's slideshow section is unbeatable. It can do a lot of editiing as well, but not like Phototshop. I have a Nikon D80 and a D7000 that I use regularly and an older Nikon and Minolta but my Fujii died. Six good lenses from 14mm up to 500mm and a truck load of other minor equipment including 5 tripods and some lighting equipment. Been doing this since the 1950's.

One other point about your photo.....there is a thin branch just above and parallel to the horizontal main pine limb. If you were to clone this out, it would take away the slight distraction. It presents as a line through the ends of the needles and even though it is natural, it gives the impression of an editing artifact.

Best of luck in your editing the shot. It's worth the effort.