Step Two: Add a blank layer on top of the layer stack, double-click its name, and rename it “Dots.” Before we go painting in our lights, I want to set up a custom brush that will show off the technique. Step One: With a photo open in a new document, first add a Solid Color fill layer (Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color) above your image layer and set it to black, then turn off the Color Fill layer’s visibility by clicking its Eye icon in the Layers panel. Fortunately, the answer is relatively simple. We want maximum brightness and flexibility. Another issue is that applying Lens Blur to a transparent layer with painted dots usually results in a faint, faded effect. Now that we have this insight, how do we apply it to our images? Previously, I pointed out that Lens Blur doesn’t work with smart objects. Hopefully, these examples have made the case for using Lens Blur instead of Gaussian Blur for simulating bokeh! In the real world, lights aren’t going to be uniformly bright, or the same size, or all shaped the same. The bokeh blur doesn’t really get much smaller as the dot gets smaller, but it does become more transparent and the edges get sharper. Now let’s look at progressively smaller dots, simulating those pinprick size specular highlights that can come from stars or tiny string lights. Gaussian Blur doesn’t care about rotation, but there’s an inherent directionality to the Lens Blur bokeh. Second, the orientation of the object distorts the resulting blur rather than simply rotating it. First, as the object gets larger, the result tends to get brighter and shows less influence of the shape of the aperture. There are two things to notice right away. The last row is meant to show the effect on some random shapes. Except for the last row, the marks progress in size from 15–50 px and vary in shape and orientation. Every mark was treated to the same settings: Pentagon-shaped aperture with Radius set to 20, with Blade Curvature and Rotation set to zero. Larger photos will require larger brush sizes, and larger Radius settings in the Lens Blur filter. Important: The bokeh effect is highly dependent on the relationship of the brush size to the canvas size! This test file was created at 2000×2000 px. The following screenshot compares the Lens Blur result with its original mark to the lower right. Again, real-world scenes include specular highlights and bright areas of different shapes and sizes. The next example demonstrates how the Lens Blur filter treats different sizes and shapes of marks. The pattern is a direct result of using the Triangle shape aperture in the Lens Blur filter. Note that the Gaussian Blur result is smooth and uniform, while the Lens Blur isn’t as soft, and there’s a very slight variation or pattern present. Here, I’ve applied roughly similar levels of blur using Gaussian Blur and Lens Blur to illustrate the difference. Lens Blur doesn’t work with smart objects, which means if we want variations, we’re going to need to make copies on which to work (we’ll cover that in a moment). It turns out we don’t need an image at all! We can extract the bokeh effect directly from the Lens Blur filter, and use the results, much like we would with the Lens Flare filter, by rendering them to their own layer.īelow, I’m using a test document that’s 8-bit RGB with a black background and a blank layer above that. But what if you want these effects in an image that doesn’t have specular highlights? If you’ve used the Lens Blur filter, you’re familiar with how it affects these areas of your image. The most common discussions center on the shape and quality of those highlight effects: a kind of shaped blur that’s not easy to reproduce, and isn’t the same as the typical Gaussian Blur with which we’re all familiar. In general, it refers to the quality of out-of-focus areas of an image and, in particular, how specular highlights and tiny light sources are represented. Bokeh is a somewhat loaded term that can start arguments in any place where two or more photographers have gathered.
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