Punching up a picture in Photoshop and

Blurring the Surroundings

From time to time I like to create the feeling of No One/Nothing else in the
world in a picture. Rather than buying the expensive lens that does this…I
use Photoshop.

Here’s how.

1. Open your subject picture

2. First duplicate the background layer by pressing Ctrl+J.
Then open the curves. Image->Adjustments->Curves or Ctrl+M.
3. On this particular picture I made the Input 165 and the Output 191. This
made the Highlights lighter and the shadows darker (adding more contrast
to the whole image). You can achieve similar effects through
Image>Adjustments>Shadow/Highlights and dial up/down the
percentages. But I prefer this way.
4. To add a little more contrast I adjust the levels (image->adjustment-
>Levels or Ctrl+L) Here I have the Input levels set to 15 1.00 and 245
and the output levels to the default range of 0 - 255
5. The final step to the basic color/contrast punch up is to adjust the color
levels themselves (Image>Adjustments>Color Balance. Here I have
Preserved Luminosity and in the Midtones I have adjusted Cyan,
Magenta and Yellow to 7, 5 and -5 respectively
6. There are other steps you can take to punch up the subject photo as well.
Such as using the Healing Brush Tool to remove the dark areas under my
eyes, using the Pen Tool to make a selection around our eyes and
adjusting the brightness (along with some feathering) to make our eyes
stand out a bit more etc. But that is a whole other tutorial.

7. Currently, the “after” picture looks like this in comparison

8. Our next step is to remove the rest of the world (or BLUR the
background). Start by selecting the Blur Tool

9. Next I would select a little bit more than Medium “hardness” on the brush I
was using. (As you get used to doing this – you will find varying levels of
softness/hardness that work better for you in a specific situation).
You can do this by right clicking on the picture and adjusting the
Hardness.
10. Next – blow up the picture. I like to bring it up to over at least 200%. This
way you are working on each individual pixel of the picture on a more
concentrated level.
11. From here – begin to (holding down the left mouse button) run the Blur
Tool over everything in the picture you want to blur/remove e from the
world. Try to make even passes as much you can. This will only help you
as you go along. It will serve to frustrate you if you start seeing uneven
blurring around the picture. To get in to the smaller areas or to
concentrate your blur – change the diameter of your brush ( right click on
the picture again and bring the diameter down) while also increasing the
working size/percentage of the picture (increase the percentage in the
lower left hand corner of the working frame)
a. Moving back and forth between true size and larger size to check
your work is always helpful as well.
12. When you are satisfied with your work you should have something that
has a comparison look like this.
13. The last thing I sometimes do is to add a very thin “frame” to the picture
just to give it a little more depth. You can do this by right clicking on the
title bar of the picture and selecting Canvas Size
14. This particular picture I have given a .5cm x .5cm black frame.

15. Which gives me an end result of this.

I hope this was helpful.