If you are a student of Photoshop you will love this technique as I did.

Bryan Peterson is doing some Photo Critique videos, and some are interesting, and some, like this one – down right enlightening.  George Crudo gives a critique that is FULL of awesome tips and techniques to enhance your photos.  Check it out…  George Crudo critique

Not only does he talk about multiple techniques we can learn from, like color range – ability to enhance the color of specific areas like sky, subject, foreground – he also shares a cool technique for blurring the background.

Now I get that the best way to blur the background is to do it in camera.  But sometimes that is just not possible.  Not all my lenses can give me a wide aperture (and shallow depth of field) like f2.8.  Moreover, sometimes in the daylight with bright sun, I may not be able to have a large aperture, instead I have to use a small aperture like f/11 or f/16, which doesn’t help me blur the background.  Unless I want to use an ND filter to cut the light, I am forced to compose and take a photo that pretty much is what it is.

With George’s technique though, I can blur the background in post process.

Take this photo for instance.  I love the gesture / expression on the baby elk, but the background, while a little blurred is just too busy and takes away from my subject.

Using George’s technique, I can create a new layer in Photoshop (Command J), and quick select my subject (the elk), select the inverse (Command I) to select the background (all but the elk).  I then blur the background (Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur).  Then using a brush paint back in the foreground.

Fantastic!  Now my elk stands out more.

I must admit, I’m not one to Photoshop my photos much… a little tweak here, exposure adjustment there… but having useful tools in my toolbox is always appreciated.  Awesome tip.  Thanks, George.