How to Digitally Add Shallow Depth of FieldBy Melanie MayneJanuary 25, 2013 9 Comments

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One of the easiest and most common techniques that photographers use to make their photos look more interesting and professional is to use a shallow depth of field. Depth of field refers to the distance between the nearest and farthest parts of an image that appear sharp or in focus. When a photo has a shallow depth of field, only a small portion is in focus, while the rest is blurry.

Method 1: Iris Blur

The Iris Blur tool is the quickest way to give your photographs the appearance of shallow depth of field. This technique does not offer as much customization as the other two methods; however, it does a pretty good job, and it only takes about 2 minutes.

Step 1: Right-click the layer “Background” in the Layer’s box. Select “Duplicate Layer” and name the new layer “Blur Effect.”

Step 2: Select Filter > Blur > Iris Blur   This will open the Blur Gallery tool with the Iris Blur tool selected and a default Iris Blur will be placed on your image. Move the circle in the center to the part of your image that you want to stay sharp. For my photo, I wanted the young woman and the edge of the cliff to remain in focus.

Step 3: Click and drag the outer edge of the selection to change the size of the blur. Click outside of the selection and drag diagonally to rotate the selection. Everything outside of the selection is called the “Blur Area,” since this part of the image will receive the full intensity of the blur effect. If you want more of your photo to be intensely blurred, make the selection smaller and the area outside of the selection bigger. Make the selection touch the edges of your image, leaving only the corners outside of the selection, for a gradual, more subtle effect.

Step 4: Move the little white square in the upper-right to make the selection more rectangular or elliptical. I chose to keep the selection elliptical so that the corners would be more intensely blurred.

Step 5: Adjust the handles that look like little white circles to frame which part of the photo you want to stay sharp. The area between these handles and the selection is called the “Fade Area.” In the Fade Area, the photo will gradually change from sharp to blurry. The area within the handles is the “Sharp Area,” and will remain in full focus. The smaller you make this area, the shallower the depth of field will appear.

Step 6: Adjust the intensity of the blur. You can do this either by clicking inside of the thin circle in the center and dragging clock-wise, or you can use the “Blur” slider on the right. If you want to achieve a macro, or extreme “close-up” effect, you can apply a more generous blur (34 px +), but for most other types of photographs, a subtle blur of 15 px or less will look more authentic.

 

Step 7: If you want to brighten the “Blur Area” of the picture, head over to the Blur Effects box and adjust the “Light Bokeh” slider. This tool is especially useful for photographs taken at night or indoors. Adjust the “Bokeh Color” slider to increase the vividness of the colors in the lightened areas. Adjust the Light Range sliders to select the range of tones Blur Effects settings will affect. I chose to leave the Blur Effects settings at zero for this particular photo.

Step 8: Click the box at the top next to “High Quality” so that Photoshop will render a full-quality blur. You can click anywhere else on the image if you would like to create additional Iris Blur filters. Once you are happy with your settings, click OK.

Voila! Instant shallow depth of field!

Before Iris Blur

After Iris Blur