(Editing) CREATING A 3-D APPEARANCE FOR PHOTOS

Smoothing Portions Of An Image

In photos there is what's called "Depth Of Field". This sounds complicated, but basically it just describes how much of the photo is in focus. If most of it is in focus, then it has a LARGE depth of field. If only a small part is in focus, then it has a SMALL depth of field.

If you take a photo of a flower on the ground and have a large depth of field then all the grass below the flower will also be in focus. This can detract from the flower itself. In order to produce a more 3-D appearance, you can manually create a SMALLER depth of field. You can do this by blurring everything but the flower. This makes it appear that the only thing in focus was the flower and produces a much more pleasing appearance.

HOW TO CREATE SMALLER DEPTH OF FIELD:
Now that you understand depth of field and how it can affect focus and 3-D appearance, we will show you how to make the depth of field smaller with Photo Jockey. We will give you step by step processes to achieve the desired results.

Load photo: From the main Photo Jockey window, click on an image to load and view it.

Click on the SUN button: This is located on the "Quick Tools" panel. This is for color adjusting.

Select the "Draw Region For Cloning, Pasting": There is a pulldown list located to the left of the "Full Sized Preview" checkbox.

Select the entire photo as your region: You can press ALT-A to select the entire region when the Color Adjusting window is active.

Select the "Subtract From Current Region" method: Select the Drawing Mode from the Drawing Settings window.

Draw around what you want to remain in focus: This drawn region will be Subtracted from the complete region. That way if you had drawn around a flower, then the flower is essentially REMOVED from the active region.

Select the "Add To Current Region" method: Select the Drawing Mode from the Drawing Settings window.

Draw around what you want to be OUT of focus: This drawn region will be added to the current region. That way if you had drawn around a bug, then the bug is essentially ADDED to the active region.

Repeat above 2 steps: Keep repeating the above steps to subtract/add all objects you want to remain focused or be out of focus.

Click on the Sharpen / Smooth button: There is a Sharpen/Smooth button located on the "Copy / Paste Region Settings" window. This takes you to the sharpen/smoothing effects window. Keep in mind that even though you may see the entire image in the sharpening / smoothing window, only the active region will be sharpened / smoothed.

Check the "Smoothing" checkbox: This is located at the TOP of the "Sharpening / Smoothing Effects" window.

Check the "Equal Smoothing" checkbox: This is located next to the "Smoothing" checkbox.

Slide both sliders all the way to the right. This provides maximum smoothing effect.

Click Accept: This accepts your settings and returns to the Color Adjusting window.

Slide "Edge Blending Amount" slider a little to the right a few notches to produce a natural appearance. This way, you won't see a harsh edge in the photo where the smoothed objects are next to the non-smoothed objects.

Click Apply: This is located on the "Region Drawing Settings" window. This applies your changes to the image. And allows you to continue to make additional changes.

Click Accept: This is locacted on the main Color Adjusting window next to the HELP and CANCEL buttons. This takes the current state of the image in the Color Adjusting window and returns that image back to the main Photo Jockey window.

Save your adjusted photo: Click on the FLOPPY disk button to save your new photo.

NOTE: When you draw around the object you want to remain sharp, you shouldn't draw perfectly on the edge of the object, you should draw a little bit on the INSIDE of the object. That way when you do the edge blending the non-sharp area next the the sharp object won't appear sharp. Play and you will see.

TIP: When you press ALT-A to select the entire image, it will ask if you want a border. Choose the border method.

If you want further help on Sharpening / Smoothing, click here.
If you want further help on Color Adjusting, click here.



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