Boat Bokeh

Showoff Spot Scenery and Architecture
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Taken in the lake district in England. I liked the photo, but wished I had shot it with more bokeh. I tried Topaz Studio blur adjustments, but found the I missed the Topaz Lens Effects Bokeh, which is what I used. Hope they come to studio soon!

Lens Effects

808A3548-HDR Topaz.jpg4446×6669 2.26 MB

Original

808A3548-HDR.jpg4446×6669 2.46 MB

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Nice job of spot lighting the main subject …

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Ken, the top one does focus the viewer, nice work. Can’t you use the Lens effects plugin within Studio? I have other Topaz plugins that are usable inside studio under the Plugin Menu. Another approach is to copy the picture layer (in a photo program like Photoshop or Affinity, etc) then blur that layer with Gaussian and whatever blurs you like. Then add a mask and paint it black to block the blur over the boat and nearby water.

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I might have tried to crop the image, leaving the boats in the background out completely. But yes, the light and color are worth exploring.

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Thank you very much for the very nice comments, @BobKramer, @Artisan-West, and @CabanaBoy, I really appreciate them!

@Artisan-West - I usually use Topaz Studio as a plugin from within photoshop, so I don’t use Topaz Studio to call other plugins, but if I were using it as a standalone, that would be a very good thing to try.

I did try what you suggested in Photoshop with the gaussian blur but I like the Bokeh filter better because that has a little more character than just a plain blur. I also like your point about using a mask for the blur and that is what I did with the Lens effect Bokeh blur to get more control over what was blurred and how much, so I am glad you pointed that out.

@CabanaBoy - I really like your idea about cropping but I could not find a line to crop that I liked that would not have made me spend a lot of time cloning some of the background to not be distracting.

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I think Studio has a ‘focus blur’ that might do what you want

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Ken, when accessing Topaz Studio within Photoshop, you should still see a Plugin menu at the top of Studio. In that menu you should be able to go to the Lens Effects plugin and some others. I don’t remember if you use Windows but if you don’t see Len Effects, just drag the .8bf file from Lens Effects into the PS_Plugins_X64 or PS_Plugins folder under Studio. If the .8df file has x64 in the name then use the x64 folder. After restarting Studio, it should show up in the menu. I’m sure there is something similar for Macs though I don’t know the file type.

Folders under Topaz Studio:

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Thank you very much, @Artisan-West. I am running a mac and when I tested Topaz Studio today from photoshop, it could run my old Topaz plugins, like you mentioned.

Thank you , @dvine. I did try that (with masking, too) and I preferred the way the bokeh from lens effects looks, but that is subjective…

808A3548-HDR Topaz Studio Focal Blur.jpg4446×6669 2.13 MB