Lens Blur: Refocus Photo

How to get the photo with foreground in focus with blurred background? The traditional way is using a len with narrower depth of field. Now you can use Recomposit 'Lens blur' function to simulate it easily.

Let's take the following photo as example, we want to blur the mountains and the sea while keep the car and the ground under it focused:

Step 1: Using Inside/outside matting

We isolate the car out by using the 'inside/outside matting' methods. See tutorial 3 in the help file of software for 'How to use inside/outside matting'. We show the result in following photo. In this step, remove defects of matte by touch up tools is very important.

Step 2, Apply result and select 'Blur background' in wizard dialog

Step 3: Set the parameters of dialog

3.1 Set 'Radius' to a approximate value

3.2 Next, set 'depth mode'. A 'depth mode' determine the position of pixels on background which control how you want the blur added. In this example, we find the 'horizon' mode fit the scene best, select it and click on the thumbnail below the mode combo to set the position of horizon:

3.3 Set focus

Change 'Focus at' from 0 to 19 to move th focus point from the nearest to the bottom ground of wheels.

Now we finished!

Tips:

1. Carefully clear the defects on matte to avoid bad effects on result.
2. Choose proper depth mode. The 'horizon' mode is very useful. Set 'focus' to the ground where the foreground objects stand on.

Other usage and settings:

Simulate highlight spots

For Specular Highlight, drag the 'Highlight Gate' slider to select a brightness cutoff; all pixels brighter than the cutoff value are treated as specular highlights. To increase the brightness of the highlights, drag the 'Amount' slider:

Set Iris shape

Select 'Spot shape' to change it.

Home | Recomposit | Download Free Trial | Buy