Fake a Tilt-Shift
Option 1:
- This option is much more involved and time consuming.
- Select the area to be in focus with the lasso tool.
- Invert the selection
- Apply the Gaussian blur at 2 pixels
- Subsequently selected other parts of the picture (no inverting) and one by one applied blurs from 4, 6 or 9 pixels - the further away from the focus, the more pixels. The selections should have a soft border.
- Cleaned up the whole thing by using the blur tool.
Option 2:
- Open up your chosen image, press Q to switch to Quick Mask mode
- Use the Gradient tool using the default black and white. Create a gradient for the blurring by dragging twice to create a horizontal focal plane. Choose where you want the focal point of the photo to be – usually about halfway between top and bottom – and click and hold at that point. Drag the line of the gradient tool upwards, then release it towards the top of the frame; it doesn’t hurt to be a little off the pure vertical. You should get something like what’s shown above.
- Press Q again to get out of the Quick Mask mode.
- Filter > Blur > Lens Blur [iris: Hexagon 57 0 0 specular highlights: 35 254]
- It can take a little tinkering to get the settings just right, but try the above values as a starting place. The Iris section controls the shape of the virtual iris in the lens; a hexagonal iris is most normal, and you could try rounding out the sharp corners of the geometric shape using Blade Curvature. Rotation controls the angle of the hexagon. The Specular Highlights section adds little glints to bright areas, but it’s usually not a good idea to drop the value of the Threshold much below 250. Click OK to apply the effect, then clear your selection.
- To add to the feeling of artificiality, use a Curves layer adjustment and create a curve that brightens the highlights, just to the right of the vertical center line in the first quad division. This will blow out the colours in the image.
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