Graded sharpening

[Dave Humphries]

Hi all,

I have a picture of a model train; a head on shot receding into the distance (please see attachment), the problem is that if I just sharpen the image, it puts just as much 'edge' in the distance (where the viewer doesn't expect it) as in the foreground, this destroys any illusion of it approaching 'reality' (i.e. non-model reality).

I think I know what I need to do ..

I have a background layer plus a duplicate of it which is sharpened. So now I need to use a gradient to transition from the soft background to the sharpened foreground layer, but I can't figure how to do this simple thing!

I am using PS Elements 6; if anyone has an answer, I'd be grateful to hear from you.

The attachment is a 50kB jpg of the original (before cropping and other tidying up), just so you can see what I'm talking about.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[Keith Reeder]

I can't answer your layers question (I don't have PSE) but it does seem like a lot of hard work just to blur a bit of the BG to get a sense of depth - I applied a very quick "soften brush" (in PSP) to the upper third or so of the image including the train, and got something of the effect I think you're trying to achieve.

[brianchapman]

The Photoshop way would be to use a gradient on a layer mask on the sharpened layer to limit the effect of the sharpening to the white part of the layer maks.

I don't think Photoshop Elements supports layer masks but apparently there is a way to simulate it by grouping [in your case] the sharpened layer with an adjustment layer.

Here's some info...
http://graphicssoft.about.com/b/2006...p-elements.htm

Hope this helps!

[Dave Humphries]

Brian, many thanks for the link, using it I worked out how to do it.

Kieth, you were right, it was a fair bit of effort (but I learned how), and even with all that, I still ended up using a bit of soften brushing in the final image!