blurring background

[sharonjoy]

I am really new to photoshop. I know how to blur the background but am having horrible problems using the paint brush to bring objects back into focus. How does one do it? Is there some tool or technique that I should know about? It is difficult to see where the object ends and even then it is impossible to make crisp edges.

[dang]

Hi Sharon,
I rarely use the technique with the type shots I take, but found by enlarging the photo and reducing brush size it works well, though still tedious.
Click "View", then "zoom in" from it's drop down menu. There's probably other ways, so maybe someone else has a tip.

You can also find a lot of online tuts for PS by doing a google search.
Good luck.

[moffetb]

You're doing it backwards. Copy the image into a new layer. Remove the background of that layer so only the part you want to be in focus is in focus. Blur the background layer...

Now you have what you want in focus in focus, and the background is blurred. You don't want to blur something and then unblur it, that's too much work. It would be something similar to this:

http://moffetimages.com/photoshop/cooper.html

Which yielded this photo:



Oh yes, this was with photoshop 3.1, so please don't tell me that there are easier ways to do this. There weren't with this old a version of photoshop

Brian