punch up and blur a picture in photoshop

8/14/2019 Punch Up and Blur a Picture in Photoshop

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Punching up a picture in Photoshop andBlurring the Surroundings

From time to time I like to create the feeling of No One/Nothing else in the

world in a picture. Rather than buying the expensive lens that does thisIuse Photoshop.

Heres how.

1. Open your subject picture


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2. First duplicate the background layer by pressing Ctrl+J.Then open the curves. Image->Adjustments->Curves orCtrl+M.


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3. On this particular picture I made the Input 165 and the Output 191. Thismade the Highlights lighter and the shadows darker (adding more contrastto the whole image). You can achieve similar effects through

Image>Adjustments>Shadow/Highlights and dial up/down thepercentages. But I prefer this way.


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4. To add a little more contrast I adjust the levels (image->adjustment->Levels orCtrl+L) Here I have the Input levels set to 15 1.00 and 245and the output levels to the default range of 0 - 255


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5. The final step to the basic color/contrast punch up is to adjust the colorlevels themselves (Image>Adjustments>Color Balance. Here I havePreserved Luminosity and in the Midtones I have adjusted Cyan,Magenta and Yellow to 7, 5 and -5 respectively


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6. There are other steps you can take to punch up the subject photo as well.Such as using the Healing Brush Tool to remove the dark areas under myeyes, using the Pen Tool to make a selection around our eyes andadjusting the brightness (along with some feathering) to make our eyesstand out a bit more etc. But that is a whole other tutorial.

7. Currently, the after picture looks like this in comparison


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8. Our next step is to remove the rest of the world (or BLUR thebackground). Start by selecting the Blur Tool

9. Next I would select a little bit more than Medium hardness on the brush Iwas using. (As you get used to doing this you will find varying levels ofsoftness/hardness that work better for you in a specific situation).You can do this by right clicking on the picture and adjusting theHardness.


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10. Next blow up the picture. I like to bring it up to over at least 200%. Thisway you are working on each individual pixel of the picture on a moreconcentrated level.


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11. From here begin to (holding down the left mouse button) run the BlurTool over everything in the picture you want to blur/remove e from theworld. Try to make even passes as much you can. This will only help youas you go along. It will serve to frustrate you if you start seeing uneven

blurring around the picture. To get in to the smaller areas or toconcentrate your blur change the diameter of your brush ( right click onthe picture again and bring the diameter down) while also increasing theworking size/percentage of the picture (increase the percentage in thelower left hand corner of the working frame)

a. Moving back and forth between true size and larger size to checkyour work is always helpful as well.


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12.When you are satisfied with your work you should have something thathas a comparison look like this.


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13. The last thing I sometimes do is to add a very thin frame to the picturejust to give it a little more depth. You can do this by right clicking on thetitle bar of the picture and selecting Canvas Size


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This particular picture I have given a .5cm x .5cm black frame.

15. Which gives me an end result of this.


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I hope this was helpful.

punch up and blur a picture in photoshop

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