Santa Barbara Farmer's Market -- Question on PP

Sometimes you pile up these produce and they just sell themselves!

http://i51.tinypic.com/282nptc.jpg


I shot this at F8 and got all the distracting background. I darkened the background with a levels adjustment layer and masking out the foreground. I did the same with a lens blur adjustment.

The image prior to PP:

http://i56.tinypic.com/123uuc7.jpg



The only thing is that this subsequently made the final output sharpening a lot of work ...it would sharpen everything again and require masking of the background, wouldn't it?

Anyone with a slicker way of doing this?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by peterindb

Anyone with a slicker way of doing this?

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Peter

Don't know what software you're using for PP. I use the GIMP. And to do what you are describing (which I agree with) is, literally, a few seconds work.

Do your sharpening. Put a white layer mask onto the layer that you've sharpened and then just paint black onto that bit you don't want affected by the sharpening.

Thank you Donald.

I use photoshop. Just on the lookout for any shortcuts I haven't been aware of.

Hi Peter,

I'm no expert, especially with layers, but the mask you made to apply the levels and blur to the background could probably be copied and inverted quite easily (but don't ask me how) and then used to apply the sharpening only to the foreground layer.

However, it may not be necessary; if you have blurred the background sufficiently, a small radius sharpen may have little on no effect upon it.

Cheers,