Creating the illusion of selective DOF (tutorial)

Started Jan 4, 2004 | Discussions thread
Vegard Senior Member • Posts: 1,202
But isn't this the proof?

The proof that Gaussian blur doesn't look real?

Compare Jarrell's two first pictures here. In the one that has "optical blur" (the Sigma lens) there are objects in the blurred area. You can clearly see the surprisingly well-defined outlines of branches or whatever behind his grandson.

In the images with Gaussian blur all the backgrund has the same misty, woolly look. I have been looking for an example of this difference, and now Jarrell has provided it.

I don't know why this is so, but I can guess that with "optical blur" objects at different distances create different blurs. To recreate this in Photoshop would require one to create a mask for almost every object in the background and blur it separately, maintaining the edge in some way. My Photoshop knowledge comes up short...

Jarrell Conley wrote:

Blurring the background became easier as in this photo of my
grandson taken with the D100 and a Sigma 70-200mm lens set at 200mm
and f/3.5 (if I remember right) and fill flash.

But I did it something like your way such as this old Coolpix 990
shot several years ago and enjoyed doing it..

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