In this tutorial i will show you how to make photo objects stand out from a picture.
For this example i will use dog Shiva, she is running towards camera and looking all
happy, but let see if we can somehow enhance focus on it.
Altough photo looks nice, main object - dog Shiva does not really stand out of this picture.
To make Shiva really looking as center of photo we will apply special effect known as
radial blur. This will also make her looking more dynamic in motion.
Step 1. Magnetic Lasso Tool
For this effect we must first select object of our attention with Magnetic Lasso Tool. With this tool it is pretty
easy to select, we just follow the lines that interests us and the tool will automatically
select outlines.
Select Magnetic Lasso Tool and follow object outlines:
When we selected out object, click on menu Select and click Inverse, you can also press
SHIFT + CTRL + I. We have selected everything except our object.
Step 2. Radial Blur Filter
Click on Filters >> Blur >> Radial Blur and set parameters for this effect.
Ofcourse for your pictures you can play around a bit to get the desired effect.
Step 3. Gradient Tool (Circle)
For the last part we can enhance quality of the picture by darkening edges in kind of a natural way.
We want colors to gradually fade out near edges of the pictures. This way even more focus is centered on our main model - shiva, just as we want it.
Make new empty layer and select it:
Now click with RIGHT mouse button over Layer 1 name and choose Blending Options.
Under General Blending we set Blend Mode >> Soft Light.
After this we then select Gradient Tool:
and make it Circle Type:
First click we decide where out transition will begin, so we click in the middle of our model,
the second click determines where the transition will end.
Voila.
Now we have a picture that really drives our attention to the model - Shiva and also we enhanced
our viewing pleasure with applying special gradient mask. Hope you enjoyed this tutorial !
