On 8/2/2010 12:56 PM, Jim Nichols wrote:
> Thanks, Chuck. I have seldom used layers. I printed out your response and
> will try to follow your instructions as a learning tool.
I'd like to offer some alternatives.
First, although Chuck will probably never remember, you and others might - to
switch a layer mask to black, you may save
some clicks with Ctrl-I, inverting it from white to black.
While the painting in blur method works fairly well for some subjects, I find
it slow/tedious and problematic for
subjects with complex edges.
I took a three layer approach:
One layer with a mask blacking out all but the butterfly. I applied LCE, Curves
and sharpening to it. That brightened it
up and clarified detail.
One layer for only the flower. Although there are some blown red highlights,
Highlight, LCE and Curves brought out the
texture.
One layer for blur, with everything but the flower and butterfly selected and
Refine Edge used to slightly enlarge the
deselected area and feather the edge. That keeps the blur from putting blurred
bits of them into the blurred background
area. I think I used about the same amount of Gaussian Blur as Chuck suggested.
Selection mostly done with the Quick Selection Tool, with a little hand
painting around the antennae.
Overdone?
<http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/Others/Nichols/Gulf_Fritillary_on_Orange_Cosmos.htm>
Maybe so, maybe not, but working with layers, it's easy to adjust the amount of
effect on each element to individual taste.
Moose
> From: "Chuck Norcutt"<chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> I hadn't noticed the busy bokeh at first. I added a layer, then gave it
>> a guassian blur of 2.8 pixels, added a mask, painted over all with black
>> paint using the paint bucket, switched back to white paint and a brush
>> with about 70% opacity and painted over the bad bokeh and most of the
>> other background areas which fixed up the poor bokeh.
--
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