FUNDAMENTALShttp://www.digitalcameraworld.com DECEMBER 2019 DIGITAL CAMERA^77
1
Apply lens blur
This technique uses an
interesting feature of the
Sharpness slider in Lightroom’s
Local Adjustments. With negative
sharpening, -1 to -50 on the slider
removes sharpness from the
photo, but from -51 to -100, it becomes a lens blur
tool. This effect allows you to emulate opening
up the lens aperture in Lightroom.
For this photo, we’re going to use the Graduated Filter.
Reset the tool by double-clicking on the ‘Effect’ label. Now
set the Sharpness slider to -100. You can adjust this to taste
later, but for now, use the maximum negative value.2
Add a grad
Next, drag the Graduated Filter
down the image from about
midway. You specifically want a
reasonably long gap between the
inner and the outer boundaries of
the filter: a short gap would mean
a quick jump from sharp areas to blurred ones. If you look
at real-life photos with a shallow depth of field, you’ll see
that the transition, while clear, generally isn’t abrupt.
For this reason, go longer with the Graduated Filter transition.
You’ll notice that the church is blurred as well after you apply
this grad; but for now, you should really just be looking at the
effect on the surrounding landscape.3
Restore the focus
In the Graduated Filter controls,
switch the mode to Brush. Select
the Erase Brush. Make sure Auto
Mask is on, and that Flow and
Density are at 100. Finally, press
O (the letter, not the number)
to turn on the mask overlay.
The overlay is red by default, but you’re working on a red
roof, so it’s best to change the colour. You can toggle colours by
pressing Shift+O. Green is probably the best option here. Erase
the mask from the church by first painting along the edges,
and then from the centre. Don’t forget the cross on the spire.4
Rough it up
The final step is to add a little blur
to the foreground. Click New in
the panel to start a new brush.
Assuming you made your settings
before using the first Graduated
Filter, these should be the same as
the first one. If not, double-click Effect to reset and set
Sharpness to -100. Drag from the bottom, again with a long
transition. You may need the filter to start outside the frame.
Finally, tweak the Sharpness to taste on both filters.
Sharpness at -100 may be too blurry for you, so change them
to see what you prefer. This can also help with haloes on edges.