Focus Point Tutorial

Please make sure to credit every source used in this tutorial... that includes me!
Credit: orginal image from here.

For this tutorial, I will be using Photoshop CS5.

Step 1: Take an image that is somewhat busy. I will be using this image from colbie-calliat.org but this tutorial could really work with any image.

Step 2: Decide what you want your "focus" to be. For this image, I will set Colbie's face to be the focus of attention but be creative! If you have a picture of a flower, it could be the center or if you have the picture of an animal, it could be their eyes.

Step 3: Using the lasso tool set at 20px feather (you can use more or less but I find 20 to be approriate), outline the part of the image you want to focus on like this:

Step 4: Now we are going to sharpen this piece of the image. Go up to filter - sharpen - sharpen. If you feel this is enough, move on to step 5. However, I feel like for this image, it isn't. So I went back up to filter - sharpen - sharpen edges to make it stand out a little bit more.

Step 5: Without deselecting, go up to select - inverse (or shift+clt+I for PC's) like this:

Step 6: Now that the "background" of your focus is selected, go up to filter - blur - Gaussian blur. I set mine to 4.5 but depending on your image, your setting could be different.

Step 7: It should be blurry. Now go to filter - blur - Motion blur. Your settings could be a little bit different but mine are set like this:

Step 8: With the lasso tool again, (but this time at 50px feather ) go in and select only the main or center focus point. I highlighted her face and her face only. (So, this does not include her hair.)

Step 9: Go up to filter - sharpen - sharpen more to bring out the focus point even more.
That should be it! Click here to see the final image! Please credit naiveheart.com if you've used this tutorial. Thank you!