Comments on: Creating Faux Bokeh Backgrounds in Photoshop Tutorial

By: JoanUmphrey

JoanUmphrey — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:01:43 +0000

Thank you so very much for your tutorial, it really helped me a lot. Thanks for sharing.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 20:58:25 +0000

I believe I may have found the solution to what Leonardo mentioned. I run CS4, version 11.0.1, and had a similar issue. In the Channel box, there’s are two options down at the bottom, one called “load channel as selection,” and another called “save selection as channel.” I selected Foreground Mask and then clicked those two buttons in that order. It created a sixth channel called “Alpha 1.” I treated this new channel according to your directions in step nine, and everything worked out great.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:42:59 +0000

It’s not in Adobe Suite that the folder should reside. If you have Photoshop along with Adobe Suite, then it’ll be in your Photoshop folder. Photoshop > Presets > Brushes.

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 07:11:54 +0000

Nice, easy to follow tutorial :) however my brushes folder doesn’t seem to exist?? In my Adobe Suite CS3 folder it only has the links to open the actual programmes, and even when I searched my computer for the brushes folder it didn’t find it. So I’m stuck at that point :( but it was still good to learn how to get a blurred background!

By: Rocio

Rocio — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:54:53 +0000

Such a lovely tutorial! It helped me a lot. Thank you so much for sharing, it was really easy to follow! God bless!

Here’s the picture I edited (I had never tried bokeh before so this is my first edited picture using this tecnique):

http://rocioflores.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=105011136

Thank you, Stephanie!

By: Creating Faux Bokeh Backgrounds In Photoshop

Creating Faux Bokeh Backgrounds In Photoshop — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:05:27 +0000

[...] by the “background” of the photo, like the one on the right below, follow steps 2-11, then jump ahead to the alternate steps 14-17. I will tell you when to skip ahead in the course of the tutorial, so just go get it in your mind [...]

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 17:18:15 +0000

@Leonardo: I’m afraid I don’t have CS5 yet to let you know a way around this, I’m sorry! You can try looking up how to successfully select & copy the “Foreground Mask” layer in CS5, which would help you through that step. If you’re working with an image that doesn’t have any “holes” in it (places where the background shows through, like within the space created by someone’s arm if they had it on their hip), and is just one continuous background surrounding the figure or focus of the image, you could just select the black background using the magic wand tool, rather than the color range selection… then just continue on with it the same way.

Hope this helps!

By: Leonardo

Leonardo — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:40:59 +0000

Hi,

I’m trying to follow your tutorial but it seems that it does not work anymore in PS CS5.

The problem seems to be step 9. After making the mask visible, Photoshop tints the background with red, but when we go Select > Color Range, Photoshop automatically hides again the layer mask and returns to the original image. It does not allow to use simultaneously the Color Range select and the red tint of the background. As a result, in step 9 a new selection is made, and not a selection of the background.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:37:06 +0000

@3ftomi: Thanks for the input and suggestions. :)

By: 3ftomi

3ftomi — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:08:18 +0000

Fine tutorial, thanks! Just two thought:
- You can spare the smudging step by
– separating the background to a new a layer, (get Foreground layer mask, invert it then use “New Layer via copy”)
– then lock its transparency (just transparency not the whole layer),
– and finally blur it
And IMHO the lens effect rendered in the camera lens, meaning the bokeh brushed layer need to be on the topmost of layers, not in the back.

Anyway your tutorial are great. I love them. Keep it up!

By: manaspattnaik

manaspattnaik — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 06:23:02 +0000

Lovely tutorial
Thanks for sharing

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 28 May 2010 23:16:55 +0000

@olivia: I explain it all in a tutorial that is linked in my sidebar, where it says “Installing Brushes” – that’ll get you going. :)

By: olivia

olivia — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:47:01 +0000

hey thanks for this tutorial!..question: when you download the bokeh brushes you gave, what do you click in photoshop to find them and use them?

By: 50 Examples & Tutorials of Bokeh -

50 Examples & Tutorials of Bokeh - — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:12:13 +0000

[...] Creating Faux Bokeh Backgrounds in Photoshop Tutorial [...]

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:04:16 +0000

Hey,

This was very useful, cheers for the tutorial and brushes :)