Another digital photography post, mixed with a little photoshop trickery. As I continue to learn how to take better pictures at night, I want to add the ability to take a picture with 'depth of field'. my first trip to Italy, I actually did this, when I was asked to take a picture of one of the couples on the trip. It was a complete accident, but the result was one of my favorite pictures of them. They posed sitting on the Spanish steps in Rome, and when we saw the picture afterwards, I had them in focus, and everything else with a small blur. This effect really makes your subject pop-out, and is useful when you want that focus effect, of course if it's a picture of someone posing with something significant in the background, let's say maybe your friend pointing at the leaning tower of Pisa, then you would not want to do this.
A similar effect can be added manually afterwards in Photoshop. I'm not sure which is better, when going for this, if it is to take the original picture with DoF (Depth of Field) or to create it after. My guess would be after, since I'm not sure you could reverse this in Photoshop. I think the safe bet would be to take the picture twice, one with DoF, and one without, if you want to be safe.
Here are two examples I put together, side by side, before the DoF effect, and after. You will probably have to click the image, to really see what's going on. I used a picture of an adorable puppy at Lake Como, in Bellagio Italy, and one of the cemetery images I posted yesterday.
ciao!
1 comment:
That is way cool, you've got me interested in picking up my photoshop books and actually reading it. I need to MAKE time and just do it!
So you talented and smart!
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