Blurred background, Bokeh, out of focus background, shallow depth of field, no matter what you call it, this effect creates a nice separation between the object and the background. This look makes a photo look more professional, like it was shot with a high end camera.

These effects are easier to create in camera these days, even with mobile phones in Portrait mode (phones create a depth map and fake the effect of shallow depth of field). To create this effect in camera, open the aperture all the way up. Large apertures such as 2.8 or even 1.4 will show this bokeh effect very nicely and its possible on other settings such as f4. What if you are using a camera that doesn’t support these large apertures or don’t have portrait mode? Or a more common challenge, you already have the photograph and want to blur the background in Photoshop? This tutorial will help you get an ultra realistic result.

Note, this image uses a single subject and single background plane. If you have a more complex image, see my more advanced background blur with depth maps tutorial here. 

Choose the object selection, or quick selection tool

Choose Select Subject (press the disclosure triangle and choose “cloud based” for a better result if available)

You should now have a “marching ants” selection around your subject.

Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy the selected subject to a new layer, as shown below.

Do not, just blur the background (as most people will do), or you will end up with weird doubling around the edges (halos).

This is because the edge of the person blurred and is visible.

Let me show you a better way

Hide the top layer by clicking the eyeball

Choose the background layer

Hold down Cmd/Ctrl and click on the thumbnail of the top layer. This will load the transparency from that layer.

As you see, you can load the transparency from any layer, even if it’s hidden and you are working on a different layer.

Choose Select>Modify>Expand

Choose 8 pixels (More for higher resolution, less for lower resolution).

Click ok

See how we now have a selection slightly larger than our person.

Lets fill the selection

Choose Edit>Fill (or press Shift+Delete / Shift+Backspace on Windows

Choose Content aware from Contents

Click ok)

Notice the are is filled with surrounding pixels. It doesn’t have to be perfect, we just need to make sure the edges blend in.

Press Ctrl/Cmd+D to deselect

Lets blur the background now, but realistically, we won’t just apply a gaussian blur.

Choose Filter>Blur Gallery>Field Blur

Notice the pin that appears. You can drag on the circle to change the amount of blur. Notice the bottom looks fake, we need to blend in the blur. This is where field blur shines!

Click directly underneath the pin to add a second pin.

Field blur will seamlessly blend the blur amount between the 2 pins. This is quicker than creating a layer mask.

Set the blur amount to zero on the bottom pin. Tip: Hold down Ctrl/Cmd+Double click the pin to set the blur amount to 0.

Here is the image before the blur, it has a little already, but we will add more. (The point here is to use it on your own images).

After, with the Blurred background. Notice, the blur blends.

I have used a very high setting, so you can easily see the result. I usually use a little less blur than I have in this tutorial, but these are your photos and feel free to edit them any way you like.

Great to see you here at the CAFE

Colin

The post How to blur the background of a photo in Photoshop, the pro way appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

1. Partial Color Change in Photoshop

This technique will change the color, but we will blend the color change gradually.

Start with a photo (This is from Adobe Stock, like all the images in this tutorial).

Step 1.

Choose the Quick Selection tool

Make a selection around the more solid background.
Press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+I to inverse the selection, so just the dress is now selected. Don’t worry about the person we aren’t changing that part of the photo.

Step 2.

Press Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy selection to a new layer.

Step 3. Changing the color

Press Cmd/Ctrl+U for hue saturation.
Move the hue slider to change the color, until you get a color you like.

Step 4. Blending the color

Add a new layer mask in the layers panel. (Click the add layer mask button to the right of fx)

Step5.

Choose the gradient tool

Make sure it’s set to foreground to background, and linear. Normal mode and 100%opacity.

Step 6.

With the mask selected, drag the gradient horizontally through the image and you will se a nice seamless blend (this is demonstrated in the video if this is difficult to grasp).

I like how the blue and red become purple where they are blending.

2. Changing background color in Photoshop

Often we want to change a background color and some people waste lots of time, trying to make unnecessary selections (I used todo this a long time ago).

Step 1.

Make a hue/Saturation Adjustment layer

Step 2.

Open the properties panel and click the finger under preset.

Click on the yellow color. You will see in the gradient, that some sliders have appeared around the yellow tones, we have isolated yellow.
(Or just choose yellows from the drop down, but not quite as accurate)

Step 3

Move the hue slider and notice that only the yellows are changing.

Make it any color you want. That’s clutch, right? No selections needed.

3. Changing the color of an object in a photo in Photoshop (changing clothing color)

How often do we need to change the color of clothing? Its a cinch with this method.

Step 1.

Make a hue saturation Adjustment layer.

Click the finger and click on the red coat to sample the color.

Spoiler alert: this is just like the previous technique, but shows you how to tighten up the color and fix areas that are changed that we don’t want to change.

Step 2.

Move the hue slider to make the coat a different color, in this case we are changing red to a nice hot pink/magenta.

Notice that their hair and skin also changed color, we don’t want that.

Step 3 refining the color selection

Move the sliders in the gradient to refine the color selection. Some things like her lips and reflections on their faces can’t be fixed in this step, but it definitely looks a lot better.

Step 4.

The Hue/Saturation has a layer mask that we will use.

Choose a brush and set the foreground color swatch to black.

With the mask selected, paint out any of the areas that you want to restore to their original colors.

4. Painting in a new color in Photoshop (recolor a car)

Sometimes, you just want to paint in the colors by hand. You can use this tutorial to paint in the colors freehand, or use selections to assist you.

Step 1.

Im going to select the color of the car’s paint to make it easier.

Choose Select > Color range

With the eyedropper, click on the main color.

Use the eyedropper+ to add to the color selection (How to use Color Range)

Refine the selection with the fuzziness slider.

Click ok to see the marching ants selection. We need to clean up a little bit.

Step 2.

Press Q for Quick mask. You will see a red overlay, indicating the selected areas.

Step 3.

Paint with white to add to the selection, or black to subtract from the selection.

Step 4.

Create a new layer and change it to color blend mode (click where it says “normal” and choose color)

Step 5.

With the selection active, choose a paint brush.

Click on the foreground color swatch to choose color.

Start painting and notice that the tones don’t change, just the color. Yay color blend mode.

Keep going until you have painted the color.

The nice thing about using Color Range is that the reflections were also selected and so it looks more realistic in the chrome when we change the color of them too.

Step 6

You can also choose Hue/Saturation and change the hue of the new painted payer at any time, to instantly dial in different colors.

Ok, that’s how change the physical colors on the photos. Let’s loos at some color effects.

5. Adding color overlays and color grading in Photoshop

Step 1.

Open the Gradients panel (Photoshop 2020 + only)

Drag a gradient onto the image.

Change to Color blend mode in the Layers Panel and change the opacity to suit.

A lower opacity gives a more realistic result.

Step 2. Gradient Maps

Let’s look at gradient maps, this gives a different result.

Choose A Gradient Map adjustment layer

Choose the same gradient as before

The left of the gradient (orange) is the shadows and right (Highlights) is red.

Change to color blend mode.

Click on reverse, so that orange does into highlights and red into shadows, looks much better already. You always want the lighter colors in the highlights.

Lower the opacity and see how nice that looks.

For extra punch, you can always combine the gradient map with the gradient overlay, don’t forget to tweak the opacity on both adjustment layers though.

6. scaling gradients for a color overlay effect in photoshop

Here is a variation of the gradient overlay. In this case, we use a gradient overlay adjustment layer instead of a straight gradient layer.

The advantage is being able to easy scale the layer and change its angle. Also try dragging on the gradient in the image while the Gradient Fill box is open. Pretty neat huh? {You can see this in action in the video.)

Thanks for checking this out. I hope you learned some new things about working with color. If you did, subscribe and tell you friends about PhotoshopCAFE! Spread the word 😉

Colin

I enjoy making these for you. As time permits, I’ll keep making one each week. Drop a comment and let me know what you would love to learn in photoshop. Also don’t forget to check out my premium tutorials, it’s what supports this website and enables me to do what I do,

PS Don’t forget to join our mailing list and follow me on Social Media>

• Instagram
• Youtube.
• facebook
• twitter

(Ive been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)

You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook here

The post 6 ways to change Colors in Photoshop. Photoshop color replacement tutorial. appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.

BLENDING PHOTOS in PHOTOSHOP – Layer Blending secrets

This tutorial shows you how to use layer blending modes in Photoshop and reveals some really useful tips to help you combine photos together easily and quickly with amazing results. Before we jump into a really useful tip, let’s touch on the basics and I’ll show you a couple of thimgs that will save you a tone of time, and perhaps upset you, if you have done it the long way in the past (Don’t worry, this happens to me all the time), its the ah-ha moment, or in the words of Homer Simpson, I like to call it the duh moment.

Did you know that all the blending modes are broken into 5 different groups?

Darken, Lighten, Overlay, Difference and Color groups.

If you want to learn more about the blending modes, check out this very detailed article I wrote on Layer Blending modes in Photoshop 

Making Black or White disappear in Photoshop

I’m going to start with 2 challenges on separate layers.

1. Black background with white writing on the right side.
2. White background with black writing on the left side.

The goal is to hide the blocks and only have the text visible. You could use selection tools like the magic wand etc, put that would be unfortunate, because what I’m about to show you is not only way faster, the results are much cleaner too.

Step 1 Hiding White

Select the layer with white background and black writing.

Go to layer blend modes in the Layers panel (where it says Normal).

Choose Darken to hide white and show black. Notice, that there is still a little fringing on the edges of the text.

Step 2

Select Multiply to make the dark stand out a bit more. I have found that Multiply is usually the best mode to hide while cleanly.

Step 3 Hiding Black

Select the layer with black background and white writing.

Go to layer blend modes.Select Lighten.

Step 4

Choose Screen to make the white stand out more. Screen works cleaner than lighten to hide Black.

Using Layer Blending modes to create Collages in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to use Photoshop blend modes to create a complex looking composite. The truth is, it’s really quick and easy to do. (But, I won’t tell anyone if you don’t ;))

Lets begin with a document where I have combined a few layers. We will now blend then all together.

Let’s examine what we have first. I’ll start at the bottom and work my way up, by revealing the layers for you. (Ignore the bottom layer, we aren’t using it)

Fire and ice lightning layer.

Woman in red layer.

Snow layer.

Step 1 Let’s use some blending modes to merge all these together

Select Woman In Red layer.

Go to Layer Blending Modes.

Change the mode to Screen to hide the dark areas and show highlight areas.

And this looks good, in a single click.

TIPS AND TRICKS: How to preview all the blending modes quickly

There are a ton of Layer blending modes in Photoshop; 27 to be precise. These blending modes make really simple moves look like really complex and advanced Photoshop work. The trick is knowing which one to use. You can read the manual and try to understand the math. But trust me, there is a much better and easier way. Just eye ball it. Problem; it takes a long time to preview each mode. Problem solved:

Select the Layer you want to blend

Choose the Move Tool (or it will change brush modes or something else)

Hold down the Shift key and then tap the plus (+) key to cycle through each blending mode

or

Hold down the Shift key and hit the minus (-) key to go backward through blending modes.

Step 2 Blending the snow with an overlay mode

Turn on the snow layer.

Hold down the Shift key and press the plus (+) key to go through different blending modes.

I like the Color Dodge mode the best.

If I hadn’t used this trick to preview them all, I might have settled for overlay or lighten, which isn’t as exciting.

To make the texture overlay a little more subtle, Pull down the Opacity to 48%.

Thanks for checking it out! Don’t forget to leave a comment or a question. I’ll be glad to reply!

Subscribe to our newsletter and become part of PhotoshopCafe! You can download the free eBook here

It’s great to see you here at the CAFÉ!

Colin

For much more on Layer blending modes, please check out this very detailed tutorial as well as downloading my free ebook. (Its all content, no promotions).

LAYER BLENDING MODES. FREE EBOOK BY COLIN SMITH

Grab your free PDF ebook right now. We were going to sell this for $9.99, but figured we would give it away instead and see what happens 🙂

Don’t forget to check out the website as we add new content every week. You can also find us on social media: Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest and Instagram @PhotoshopCAFE.

The post Layer Blending Mode tips in Photoshop tutorial, combining photos with style appeared first on PhotoshopCAFE.