josh carter's pelican tutorial

In this tutorial we'll look at a multi-layer application of Bokeh to simulate depth of field both for a midground region and a distant background. The original photo has a nice foreground subject but the background is far too cluttered to make this a useful shot. We'll improve it dramatically.

Step 1: Exposure

Before anything else, let's boost the image colors using Exposure 2. I chose the preset for Fuji Velvia 100F (grain off). It's important to disable grain in Exposure 2 if you apply it before Bokeh because grain should not blur. If you want grain, apply Exposure 2 after Bokeh.

I also chose to eliminate the green buoy in the background because, even with Bokeh, this stood out too much. I used Photoshop's healing brush to eliminate this.

Step 2: Masking

All subsequent mask operations will use some combination of two masks: the pier and the frontmost pelicans. I did the pier, with pelicans, and saved this selection (Select -> Save Selection) as "Pier Alpha." I then masked out everything but the front two pelicans and saved that selection as "Pelican Alpha."

Step 3: Background Bokeh

Now it's time to take out the background. This is easy enough: load the Pier Alpha selection and run Bokeh. I used the following settings:

• Focus Region: Selection
• Bokeh Amount: 25%
• Diaphragm Shape: Perfect Circle
• Creamy: 100%
• Rotation: 0%
• Blade Curvature: 0%
• Highlight Selection Threshold: 0%
• Highlight Boost Amount: 0%

• Shape: Natural
• Color: Black
• Intensity: 20%
• Size: 0%
• Feather: 0%

The photo looks much better at this point. One could argue for stopping here. However, if the background is that blurred, you'd expect the pier to blur somewhat as it goes back. Let's do that next.

Step 4: Midground Bokeh

Since we want the foreground pelicans to remain sharp, load the Pelican Alpha selection and run Bokeh. I used a lighter bokeh amount (6%) since we don't want the pier to blur as much as the background. I used a Selection + Planar focus region to make pier fade from sharp to blurry. The background will also blur a tad more, but that's fine. Be sure to turn the vignette intensity to 0% because we already used vignette earlier.

Complete Bokeh settings for midground:

• Focus Region: Planar + Selection
• Bokeh Amount: 6%
• Diaphragm Shape: Perfect Circle
• Creamy: 100%
• Rotation: 0%
• Blade Curvature: 0%
• Highlight Selection Threshold: 0%
• Highlight Boost Amount: 0%

• Shape: Natural
• Color: Black
• Intensity: 0%
• Size: 0%
• Feather: 0%

Step 5: Done!

Now we've got a complete simulated depth of field and a much improved photo.

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