fake DOF

[Oleg K]

Hi, guys. I have a question for you.

Look at this first:
(the photo is made with canon A40)

before:



after:



This is a new plugin for Adobe Photoshop i'm writing. It allowes to create the DOF effect for any photo. It needs lots of optimizations, but it works. I'm curious if you people are interested in something like this and whether i should keep working on it. Most likely it will be a freeware product.

It "blures" the image in certain areas (chosen by a user), and as far as i know it is impossible to do the same thing with gradient selection+gaussian blur in Adobe PS. If you don't beleive me, try to imitate the last set of pictures.

I'm also not sure if somebody created plugin/software like this, so if you know something, let me know, plese.

More images:

before:



after:



before:



after:

 

[Marco Nero]

Not sure how useful it is since Photoshop has similar tools. I know it might sound easier to instantly blur something but there must be a large degree of error to the program you have written since the A.I. is still rather poor on graphic interface programs.

I once asked John Knoll (the creator of Adobe Photoshop/ ex-ILMer) about filters like this one. He pointed out that the blur-tool and blur-filter give much more control to the user than a randomiser. And that an expensive program for industy (such as Photoshop) was not designed for freeware since it comes packaged with all the appropriate pluggins required for the professionals using it. It has been said that the only people interested in free pluggins were probably running pirated or cracked warez versions of the software when they should have been running affordable and legitimate consumer priced PhotoImage software.

Careful with anything bearing the name Photoshop unless it's endorsed by the folks at Adobe.

PS ( had a chap apply for work recently with "Experienced in Photoshop" clearly emblazoned on his resume. We asked him what he had learned from the program and he replied "Um, I used it to resize some photographs once." He did not get the job.)

Cheers!
--
Marco Nero.
nasty s400 pics: http://www.pbase.com/nero_design

 

[Oleg K]

well, i asked in my previous posting to try to create the same effect with the standard tools in PS. Can you do it? If yes, post your picture, please.

Not sure how useful it is since Photoshop has similar tools. I
know it might sound easier to instantly blur something but there
must be a large degree of error to the program you have written
since the A.I. is still rather poor on graphic interface programs.

I once asked John Knoll (the creator of Adobe Photoshop/ ex-ILMer)
about filters like this one. He pointed out that the blur-tool and
blur-filter give much more control to the user than a randomiser.
And that an expensive program for industy (such as Photoshop) was
not designed for freeware since it comes packaged with all the
appropriate pluggins required for the professionals using it. It
has been said that the only people interested in free pluggins were
probably running pirated or cracked warez versions of the software
when they should have been running affordable and legitimate
consumer priced PhotoImage software.

Careful with anything bearing the name Photoshop unless it's
endorsed by the folks at Adobe.

PS ( had a chap apply for work recently with "Experienced in
Photoshop" clearly emblazoned on his resume. We asked him what he
had learned from the program and he replied "Um, I used it to
resize some photographs once." He did not get the job.)

Cheers!
--
Marco Nero.
nasty s400 pics: http://www.pbase.com/nero_design

 

[mike savad]

new filters are always welcome, though for something like this, i probably would simply use a radial gradient in quickmask, then blurr it a bit. though i usually don't do that as it always looks fake, i try not to let it happen in the first place.

the thing i want is an in program noise remover. i had one from a while back, but the smart blur crashes my photoshop for some reason. neat image is good, but not great. something that removes the noise at a certain pixel size, while not killing the luminocity, at the same time raising or lowering that dot of noise to an average value of surrounding pixels. so far all of them stink.

---Mike Savad

Hi, guys. I have a question for you.

Look at this first:
(the photo is made with canon A40)

before:



after:



This is a new plugin for Adobe Photoshop i'm writing. It allowes to
create the DOF effect for any photo. It needs lots of
optimizations, but it works. I'm curious if you people are
interested in something like this and whether i should keep working
on it. Most likely it will be a freeware product.

It "blures" the image in certain areas (chosen by a user), and as
far as i know it is impossible to do the same thing with gradient
selection+gaussian blur in Adobe PS. If you don't beleive me, try
to imitate the last set of pictures.

I'm also not sure if somebody created plugin/software like this, so
if you know something, let me know, plese.

More images:

before:



after:



before:



after:

--
http://www.pbase.com/savad/
http://www.photosig.com/go/users/view?id=9050
http://www.artsig.com/go/users/view?id=52

 

[mike savad]

Not sure how useful it is since Photoshop has similar tools. I
know it might sound easier to instantly blur something but there
must be a large degree of error to the program you have written
since the A.I. is still rather poor on graphic interface programs.

I once asked John Knoll (the creator of Adobe Photoshop/ ex-ILMer)
about filters like this one. He pointed out that the blur-tool and
blur-filter give much more control to the user than a randomiser.
And that an expensive program for industy (such as Photoshop) was
not designed for freeware since it comes packaged with all the
appropriate pluggins required for the professionals using it. It
has been said that the only people interested in free pluggins were
probably running pirated or cracked warez versions of the software
when they should have been running affordable and legitimate
consumer priced PhotoImage software.

Careful with anything bearing the name Photoshop unless it's
endorsed by the folks at Adobe.

PS ( had a chap apply for work recently with "Experienced in
Photoshop" clearly emblazoned on his resume. We asked him what he
had learned from the program and he replied "Um, I used it to
resize some photographs once." He did not get the job.)

Cheers!
--
Marco Nero.
nasty s400 pics: http://www.pbase.com/nero_design

i wish i could have seen the expression when the question was asked. it never pays to lie on your resume. placing things on there that they have no idea how to do it; will always come back to haunt you.

of course on the other note, you can't get a job only knowing photoshop, which really stinks.

---Mike Savad

--
http://www.pbase.com/savad/
http://www.photosig.com/go/users/view?id=9050
http://www.artsig.com/go/users/view?id=52

 

[NarrBL]

Oleg, I would certainly go for it.

And I am very interested indeed cf. other notes whether anyone takes you up successfully on your challenge, and how long it takes them to do it. I've done it on simpler pictures just to see how workable Photoshop (Elements II) can be, but it wasn't exactly fun.

DOF is so clearly an issue with small-sensor digital cameras that you would be doing a great service, to degree and range of situations in which your expression works.

You'll have the chance to compare 'bokah' with the likes of Leica, so be prepared for arguments, but I think you already show you are. Andif Photoshop may have blur abilities which can be good, you can learn from them what to do in addition to your proprietary selection algorithm - equivalent expression is for free.

I don't know if I'd do the plugin as freeware unless you really want to give it away. A watermarked trial would be fine way to allow us to see how it works - and then a reasonable price pay.

Good fortune, and regards. I do think it is valuable.

 

[Oleg K]

And I am very interested indeed cf. other notes whether anyone
takes you up successfully on your challenge, and how long it takes
them to do it. I've done it on simpler pictures just to see how
workable Photoshop (Elements II) can be, but it wasn't exactly fun.

exactly! everybody says they can do it, but nobody chalanged me so far

DOF is so clearly an issue with small-sensor digital cameras that
you would be doing a great service, to degree and range of
situations in which your expression works.

right. i have A40 myself, and DOF is HUGE! everything is in focus, unless you turn macro mode and go tele.

I don't know if I'd do the plugin as freeware unless you really
want to give it away. A watermarked trial would be fine way to
allow us to see how it works - and then a reasonable price pay.

well, of course, i don't mind making money, but i posted here to know if somebody would be interested. Not many people so far.

 

[leemon165312]

I'm very interested in your plugin. I too have a small sensor canon camera and tried to emulate narrow DOF in photoshop but with no success.

 

[arnold Sloman]

And I am very interested indeed cf. other notes whether anyone
takes you up successfully on your challenge, and how long it takes
them to do it. I've done it on simpler pictures just to see how
workable Photoshop (Elements II) can be, but it wasn't exactly fun.

exactly! everybody says they can do it, but nobody chalanged me so far

DOF is so clearly an issue with small-sensor digital cameras that
you would be doing a great service, to degree and range of
situations in which your expression works.

right. i have A40 myself, and DOF is HUGE! everything is in focus,
unless you turn macro mode and go tele.

I don't know if I'd do the plugin as freeware unless you really
want to give it away. A watermarked trial would be fine way to
allow us to see how it works - and then a reasonable price pay.

well, of course, i don't mind making money, but i posted here to
know if somebody would be interested. Not many people so far.

--



Is this OK?
Arnold Sloman

 

[RayM]

Hi, guys. I have a question for you.

Look at this first:
(the photo is made with canon A40)

before:



after:



This is a new plugin for Adobe Photoshop i'm writing. It allowes to
create the DOF effect for any photo. It needs lots of
optimizations, but it works. I'm curious if you people are
interested in something like this and whether i should keep working
on it. Most likely it will be a freeware product.

It "blures" the image in certain areas (chosen by a user), and as
far as i know it is impossible to do the same thing with gradient
selection+gaussian blur in Adobe PS. If you don't beleive me, try
to imitate the last set of pictures.

I'm also not sure if somebody created plugin/software like this, so
if you know something, let me know, plese.

More images:

before:



after:



before:



after:

--
RayM
HI: I'd be very interested if it would work with Elements 2 and a Mac. Nice job.

 

[Oleg K]

Is this OK?

No, it's not. You did it with gradient slection and gaussian blur. I asked to imitate the last set of pictures (black bacground, white lines).

 

[Oleg K]

HI: I'd be very interested if it would work with Elements 2 and a
Mac.

I don't think it will work on Mac, because it's a DLL file for windows platform, and i have no idea how to write the same thing for Mac.

 

[arnold Sloman]

Is this OK?

No, it's not. You did it with gradient slection and gaussian blur.
I asked to imitate the last set of pictures (black bacground, white
lines).

--That is a very interesting effect, but I do not see it as a depth of field lookalike. The original image does not even look like a photo.
Arnold Sloman

 

[mike savad]

And I am very interested indeed cf. other notes whether anyone
takes you up successfully on your challenge, and how long it takes
them to do it. I've done it on simpler pictures just to see how
workable Photoshop (Elements II) can be, but it wasn't exactly fun.

exactly! everybody says they can do it, but nobody chalanged me so far

here's the fact of the matter - i don't want to waste my time on it. for the 1-2 shots out of a 100, i don't have much use for it. if this was a masking program, then maybe.

DOF is so clearly an issue with small-sensor digital cameras that
you would be doing a great service, to degree and range of
situations in which your expression works.

right. i have A40 myself, and DOF is HUGE! everything is in focus,
unless you turn macro mode and go tele.

I don't know if I'd do the plugin as freeware unless you really
want to give it away. A watermarked trial would be fine way to
allow us to see how it works - and then a reasonable price pay.

well, of course, i don't mind making money, but i posted here to
know if somebody would be interested. Not many people so far.

there are many way's to blur. a good sharpener, masker, noise removal. so far from what i can tell, a masker is the best use for what you made. i havn't found a good one yet.

---Mike Savad

--
http://www.pbase.com/savad/
http://www.photosig.com/go/users/view?id=9050
http://www.artsig.com/go/users/view?id=52

 

[Oleg K]

there are many way's to blur. a good sharpener, masker, noise
removal. so far from what i can tell, a masker is the best use for
what you made. i havn't found a good one yet.

nope, there's no masking in my software - you do masking with photoshop, and then you apply my plugin to the masked area. there are some very good masking plugins... like Extensis Mask Pro

 

[herbet50979]

if you're referring to the effect that makes the blurred area look like a double image this is actually an undesirable effect produced by lens with poor bokeh. lenses with the best bokeh produce smooth background. So, if that's your added value I'd say it's not useful.

Is this OK?

No, it's not. You did it with gradient slection and gaussian blur.
I asked to imitate the last set of pictures (black bacground, white
lines).

 

[herbet50979]

however there's no good freeware or shareware masking softwares, at least that I know off. a good masking action would be much more desirable in my point of view than an action for blurring the background.

there are many way's to blur. a good sharpener, masker, noise
removal. so far from what i can tell, a masker is the best use for
what you made. i havn't found a good one yet.

nope, there's no masking in my software - you do masking with
photoshop, and then you apply my plugin to the masked area. there
are some very good masking plugins... like Extensis Mask Pro

 

[Oleg K]

however there's no good freeware or shareware masking softwares, at
least that I know off. a good masking action would be much more
desirable in my point of view than an action for blurring the
background.

Extensis Mask Pro is shareware, and it's pretty good

 

[herbet50979]

it's not what I call shareware.
http://www.extensis.com/maskpro/

however there's no good freeware or shareware masking softwares, at
least that I know off. a good masking action would be much more
desirable in my point of view than an action for blurring the
background.

Extensis Mask Pro is shareware, and it's pretty good

 

[MacDigitalist]

I don't think it will work on Mac, because it's a DLL file for
windows platform, and i have no idea how to write the same thing
for Mac.

-------
Pity 8-(

• McD.

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Canons G2 & S400 / Canon i950 / 40GB Tripper / Mac OS 9.2.1 / QPict