Focus Tools

Now focus your attention on the Focus tools. These tools, Blur and Sharpen, are great for touching up an image, fixing tiny flaws, and bringing items into sharper contrast. They can't save a really bad photo, but they can do wonders for one that's just a little bit off. Sharpen can increase the contrast to create the illusion of sharper focus, whereas Blur is most useful to rid the background of unwanted clutter and to deemphasize parts of the picture that you don't want viewers to notice. The Focus tools can be seen in Figure 9.4.

Figure 9.4. The Focus tools, with Smudge thrown in for good measure.

The Blur Tool

The Blur tool, simply put, creates blurs in images. By blurs, I mean a softening or evening out of pixel values. Select the Blur tool from the toolbox. The Tool Options bar will show you the Blur tool's options (see Figure 9.5). When you are working with the Blur tool, you can temporarily select the Sharpen tool (and vice versa) by pressing Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows). The Sample All Layers option is available only when your image has more than one layer.

Figure 9.5. The Blur Tool Options bar.

Options for the Blur and Sharpen tools are much the same as those for the Smudge tool described earlier. You have the same choices of blending mode and the same Strength settings.

Figure 9.6 shows a close look at the Blur tool's effect. The flowers were perfect, but the leaves looked as if they'd been hit with a weed whacker. Some careful blurring can hide the damage. Figure 9.7 shows the picture before and after retouching.

Figure 9.6. The Blur tool in use.

Figure 9.7. Before blurring (top) and after (bottom).

Make sure that, as you blur, you cover the entire area that you intend to blur. A missed spot stands out very conspicuously. Also don't forget that you can change the size of your Brush tool by choosing a different brush from the Brushes menu.

For the Blur tool, I recommend using a brush with a soft edge, but not for the Sharpen tool. When sharpening, I prefer to use a small brush with hard edges so that I know exactly where I am. You'll also find it helpful to work with a magnified view of your picture, just so you have better control over the tool.

A Touch of Retouching

One of the things you'll begin to notice as you become more accustomed to working with Photoshop is the use of image-manipulation techniques in advertising and even in magazine and news editorial photos. You'll begin to recognizein magazines and other printed piecespictures that betray the work of a digital retoucher. You should also begin to examine them for technique and skill. Take note of the next automobile advertisement you see in a flashy, four- color magazine or brochure. Note the foreground. Check the highlights. Examine the reflections in the headlights. Do they look good? Too good? Almost all advertising images are retouched ( mainly in Photoshop), and the people doing this are professionals. Learn from them. Notice how the backgrounds fade, how the trees blur, or how the highlights appear. Evidences of Photoshop are all around you. Just keep your eyes open .

The Sharpen Tool

The Sharpen tool is the exact opposite of the Blur tool. Where the Blur tool softens pixel values, the Sharpen tool hardens them and brings them into greater relief by increasing the contrast between adjacent pixels. Because of their equal-but- opposite relationship, they share a space on the toolbox, with a pop-up that lets you choose either one, or the Smudge tool. You can also activate the Blur, Sharpen, and Smudge tools by pressing R (for retouching ?). Press Shift+R to toggle among the three. Figure 9.8 shows a dogwood blossom, before and after having its center sharpened.

Figure 9.8. Applying the Sharpen tool. Compare the area inside the circle to the same picture before sharpening.

Sharpening is best done in very small doses. If you go over a section too much or have the Strength set too high, you can end up burning the color out of an image, which will probably make it look worse than it did initially. See Figure 9.9 for an example of over-sharpening.

Figure 9.9. Too much sharpening.

Remember, too, that not even the magic of Photoshop can put back what wasn't there originally. Always work with the clearest, sharpest pictures you can manage. Rather than trying to salvage a bad scan, do it again. If your photo is fuzzy all over, instead of trying to sharpen it, set it aside until you start working with filters (see Hour 15).

Try it Yourself

Using the Focus Tools

Let's take a quick break here and try out these tools. Open any convenient picture in Photoshop and follow these steps:

1.	Select the Zoom tool and click once in the image window to zoom in on your picture.
2.	Select the Blur tool. Choose a soft-edged brush shape from the Brushes palette on the Tool Options bar.
3.	Type 5 to set the Strength to 50% in the Tool Options bar.
4.	Drag the Blur tool across the picture. Notice the effect (see Figure 9.10). Figure 9.10. Blurring a leaf with the image (and tool) enlarged.
5.	Switch to the Sharpen tool by pressing Shift+R. Choose a hard-edged brush. Drag it over a different part of the picture. Try to drag it along the edge of an object and note the effect (see Figure 9.11). Figure 9.11. Sharpening is more obvious than blurring.
6.	Try sharpening the area you previously blurred. Can you restore it to its previous appearance? (Probably not.)
7.	Now, just for fun, switch to the Smudge tool and see for yourself the difference between Blur and Smudge.
8.	Practice with these tools at different Strength settings and with different brushes. Use Revert (File Revert) or click the snapshot at the top of the History palette to restore the picture if you run out of practice room.