This tutorial will show you a simple way of adding depth to your creations for more professional, unique appearances.
In Photography, Depth of Field refers to the sharpness of objects at a specific distance from the camera lens. When focusing on an object at a certain distance with a camera, all objects at that distance will appear sharp, while objects outside of this zone will appear less sharp. This technique gives photos more depth when viewed later, and makes an excellent effect when used well! We can duplicate this effect in Adobe Photoshop by making it appear as if we are focusing in on an object in a document by making it sharper than the rest of the image.
1. First, lets open a document that you want to add some depth to:
I will be using this picture. For this image, I used a photo I took, and then I created 3 Abstract Text Boxes (making them smaller as I go deeper into the image). If you want to learn how to create abstract text boxes like these.
2. This technique is very simple, but it takes some time and practice to make it look real. What we want to do is give our image a focal point (or a point of focus), and make this point the sharpest part of the image, and areas around this point less sharp. Grab your Blur Tool (
) from the Tool Bar in Photoshop. Set the size of your blur tool brush to around 150px, and the hardness to 0% (You may want to adjust these settings depending on the size of your Photoshop Document). Now, think about where you want your focal point to be in your image. Below will show you where I have chosen to use as my focal point:
3. Using your blur tool, begin blurring the areas far away from your focal point:
4. Continue to blur while moving in towards your focal point, blurring less while you get closer to it so that the entire image blends well:
5. And that's it! Continue experimenting and Good Luck!
