Creating Depth of Field in an Image

This tutorial examines how to add a shallow depth of field to an image to give it a fully sharp depth.

Sometimes it can be difficult to find the perfect image.  It seems like there is always something that is just a little “off.” In this Photoshop tutorial, we are going to examine how adding a shallow depth of field to an image gives it a fully sharp depth of field.



To create a shallow depth of field, we want the flowers furthest from the camera to be blurry and the flowers closest to the camera to remain sharp.  First, duplicate the background layer by hitting CMD + J (Mac) or CTRL + J (PC).  With your new layer selected, go to the filter menu and select Filter -> Blur -> Lens Blur.  This type of blur will give you the most accurate look.  A large dialog box will open.  About half way down the right hand side of the dialog box you will find the Radius setting.  



Feel free to experiment with all the settings, but the Radius setting will give you the greatest effect.  On this image, I chose a radius of 17, and left all the others on default.  Click OK.   Next, we simply need to add a layer mask to the blurred layer by clicking on the “Add Layer Mask” icon. 



As with layer masks, white allows the current layer to show, while black hides the layer.  So select the gradient tool, and select the black to white gradient.  Since we want to hide the blurry layer at the bottom, where the closest flowers reside, we will start with the black on the bottom and drag toward the top.



Now that the layer mask has been applied, if the blurry effect is too much, simply lower the opacity of the top layer to allow more of the sharp layer to show through.  You can then add text or other design elements to the blurry area to give you just the layout you were looking for.