mnoble wrote:Try this. I have been using this technique with some excellent results. You can do this on a separate layer in Photoshop or the original. Do all the cropping, balancing, retouching that you want to do first. Then, go under the filters and select Blur/Gaussian Blur. Blur the entire photo to the extent you want for the background. Then go to the History Palette and activate the preceding action. (The one before the Gaussian Blur) This will visually eliminate the blur you just applied.
An easier way to do this (and more effective for what you can do with
the subject) is blur the entire photo to the extent you want for the
background, as you said - THEN go in History back to PRE-blur, check
that on the left to use that as the Source for your history-brushing.
THEN go to where you were after the blurring (most current state),
pick a fat brush size for History-Brush and just brush over the subject to
bring back the history state of pre-blur so the subject is sharp.
You can chose a lower opacity setting to build back sharpness as you
like. This way you can bring eyes back to top sharpness that existed
WHILE not bringing pores and flaws back as strongly (unless you want to).
Gives you a lot of flexibility for the main subject.