008 Standout in a Crowd

Listen to the MP3 File Now! (time: 6:41 | file size 1.6mb)

If you have an image with many people and no focal point there are things you can do to make your subject stand out. When I look at the image below (left) there is really no place for the eye to rest. My eye moves to the player in white in the forground and moves around clockwise, but my eye never stops which makes for a tension filled image. Below right there is no question where the eye has to go and the photo is much more exciting. The subject is in focus, the motion of the blur drives the eye into the subject back out to the other players then right back to the subject.

Start by making 3 layers of the same image adding a radial blur to the bottom image.

The second layer is the subject knocked out of the background. (white is see through)

When you put these two layers together you end up with the image below left. But the other players are so blurred out that you can't even tell this is a team sport. The top layer is the origianal image with it's opacity screened back 70%-80%.(image bottom right) This give a solid focal point and changes a bland unexciting photo into a dramatic, action-filled image.

The part of the image in focus tells your eye where to go.

You can also us just a regular blur to tell the eye where to move. In the first image the teacher competes for the attention. The eye moves to the back of the room because of the contrast of the teachers face and the chalkboard. By blurring the teacher your eye moves to the student, without loosing the context of the image.

Start by making three layers blurring the middle layer (left). Then mask the middle layer and allow the back layer (in focus) to show through just at the student's mid-section. His face will still be blurred. The image will blend from blurred, to in-focus, then back to blurred.

The top layer is the subject knocked out of the background. This makes the plane of the student look as though he is totally in focus and the rest of the photo is out of focus. Just like a camera set up with a short depth of field.

You can also make a subject stand out in a crowd by using contrast to point the eye or even color to contrast the subject. Below is a photo with no focal point but as soon as you desaturate the rest of the image your subjects pop. Both these images are just two layers, the top layer is the subject knocked out of the background and the bottom layer is desaturated. This could be done manually just like we did in the fixing a busy background layer.

Tell me what you think Click Here