The bokeh effect is a special technique of artistic blurring of the background in the photo, in which out of focus each luminous point becomes a bright spot. It is used in order to attract the attention of the viewer to a specific object in the image. This effect is created using special lenses. But to get such a photo, you do not need a camera with a bokeh effect. Now it can be obtained by hardware - for example, in Adobe Photoshop. To work, you will need the program itself, as well as special textures that can be downloaded on the Internet.
Preparing photos for processing in Photoshop
We select the image for processing and open it in the program, choosing the menu item “File” - “Open” or by pressing the key combination Ctrl + O. In the Layers window, create a duplicate of the image and make it invisible by clicking on the icon with the eye. We do this just in case, as a result of some incorrect actions, it will be necessary to restore the original image or want to compare it with the final result. Before starting work, the picture needs to be slightly adjusted. Create two more copies of the layer, hide one, and change the blending mode to “Lighten” for the other. Using the layer opacity indicator, we change the lightening effect to the level we need.
Apply filters and initial background blur
Next, right-click on the top layer and select the "Merge with Previous" command. Before you make the bokeh effect, create a blur effect. To do this, apply the "Wind" filter to the background layer. Go to the menu "Filters", select the item "Stylization" and then the corresponding filter. We leave the default value or manually set the direction to the right and the "Wind" method.
Apply the filter again using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F. You can also open the "Filters" menu and select the very first item - it will display the last action we applied with the saved settings. How many times you need to apply the Wind filter depends on the size of the image we are working with.
Now you need to change the settings and set the direction “Left”. Again, go to the "Filters" menu, select the "Stylization" item, and then the "Wind" filter and, making the necessary changes, apply it. Press Ctrl + F again to repeat the action.
Object selection
The bokeh effect helps to draw the attention of the viewer to a specific figure in the image. Now we have a uniformly blurry picture. At the next stage, in order to get the bokeh effect in Photoshop, select the object we need. To do this, return the visibility of the copy of the background layer, and add a mask to the layer with the effect by clicking on the rectangular icon with a circle inside on the layer panel.
Reduce the opacity of the Wind filter layer to better see the object. Select the Brush tool (we need a round brush with minimal rigidity). For convenience, we enlarge the image and on the layer mask in black we begin to paint over the desired area. The opacity of the brush should be 100%. You can remove excess with a white brush.
How to adjust layer mask
In order to see the areas that we paint over, go to the “Channels” panel and make the layer with a copy of the background mask visible. Now in the image appeared areas painted in red. Press Ctrl + 0 and go to the Channels panel. Turn off the visibility of the layer mask. While holding down the Alt key, click on the layer mask. In the photo with the bokeh effect, the contours should remain solid, and this operation will help us to make the missing areas visible and paint over them. Having finished the mask correction, press the Alt key again to return to the image. Return the opacity of the layer by setting the value to 100%. Click on the photo icon in the layers panel to move to it from the mask.
Extra Blur
Go to the "Filters" menu and select "Blur", and then "Blur at a shallow depth of field." In the settings, set the following values:
- "Curvature of the sheet" - 50;
- "Turn" - 150;
- "Isogelia" - 100;
- "Distribution" - uniform.
Below we tick off the item "Monochrome". Manually select the blur radius we need and close the filter window by clicking the Ok button. Now inaccuracies in the outline of the mask will become noticeable in the photo. They can be corrected if you go to the layer with the mask and walk along the edges of the object with a brush of the desired color.
We continue to create the Bokeh effect in the Photoshop program. Now on the toolbar, select the "Rectangular area" and select the entire canvas. Make the top layer active and go to the "Edit" menu item. Select "Copy Combined Data" or press the key combination Shift + Ctrl + C. Then, in the same menu item, select "Paste" or press the key combination Ctrl + V.
Image tinting
Add a little tone to the photo using the following technique:
- In the panel with channels, make active red.
- Select the item “Image”, and then - “External channel”.
- In the window that appears, set the channel value - “Red”, the layer - “Combined”, the overlay - “Multiplication”, the opacity - “100%”.
- Close the window by clicking the Ok button.
We click on the RGB channel to make the image color again, and change the blending mode of this layer to “Soft Light”. Now we need to once again copy the aligned data to a new layer, using the “Copy Combined Data” and “Paste” options in the “Edit” menu or by pressing the key combination Shift + Ctrl + C and then Ctrl + V.
Bring an object to the fore
Combine the two layers below the group, select them and press Ctrl + G so that they do not interfere with the work. Go to the top layer - now we will add a bokeh effect to the photo. First, cut out the foreground object and move it to a new layer. There are several ways to do this, but we use the simplest one.
Duplicate the layer and go to the previously created mask, on which the desired object was selected. Click on the layer mask while holding down the Ctrl key. Then select the “Selection” tool, click on the image with the right mouse button and select the “Invert selection” item. We highlighted the foreground object. Now select the menu item "Selection", then "Modification" and "Feather". Feathering is 1 pixel. As a result, we get blurry edges of the contour of the object.
Bokeh Effect in Photoshop
Go to the topmost layer and press the key combination Ctrl + J. We have created a new layer with the object. Delete the bottom layer and select an image with one of the textures with the bokeh effect. Select the menu item “File” and the command “Place”. Stretch the texture while holding the Shift key so that its size matches the original image. Create two copies of the texture layer. We move one of them under the layer with the foreground object. Only the top layer with the texture is visible and then we work with it. Change its blending mode to Overlap. Now reduce the opacity and remove the texture from the object.
To do this, add a layer mask:
- While holding down the Ctrl key, click on the layer with the cut out object.
- We get the selected area and go to the texture layer with the mask.
- The foreground color is black.
- Use the Alt + Backspase key combination to fill the mask with color.
- Deselect using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + D.
Now the bokeh effect is present only on the background of the image. Go to the next layer with the texture, make it visible and change the blending mode to “Screen”. Reduce its opacity to 50%. Add a mask to this layer and with the help of an opaque brush we erase the Bokeh effect from the central part of the object, and then reduce the opacity to 50% and brush over the entire foreground.
Final image correction
Go to the third texture layer and change its blending mode to “Screen”. Its opacity is changed by 50%. On the topmost layer with the bokeh effect, add the adjustment layer by clicking on the circle icon. Select the item "Hue / Saturation" and create a clipping mask for it. Slightly increase the brightness of the layer and return to the window with the layers. Create another adjustment layer “Levels” and, moving the sliders, lighten the image a bit. That's all - now you know how to make the bokeh effect in Photoshop.