Selective Blur - A Ghostly Effect

cletus

I can't remember where I read about this, but it's a pretty cool effect for not much work.

Starting image:


Make a copy of the image on a new layer and blur it (I used a Gaussian blur with a radius of 16):


Change the blurred layer blending mode to Overlay:


Add a mask to the blurred layer and mask off any areas where you want detail to show through the effect (I masked off the latch and hinges):


Add a Level adustment layer and group it with the blurred layer then adjust the levels to find the look you want:

wxwax

Very cool, thanks for the easy-to-follow tutorial. I'm gonna hafta try that.

DoctorIt

layer this, layer that... my head is still spinning.

Nice work though!

wxwax

Cool. I shot some stuff last night that needed some kind of finish. Your technique helped this shot, IMHO.

wxwax

A little more messing around, and this came out. As usual, my levels may be off. The new monitor should arrive this week!

cletus

wxwax wrote:

A little more messing around, and this came out. As usual, my levels may be off. The new monitor should arrive this week!

That's pretty cool! I'd like to see the original image.

wxwax

cletus wrote:

That's pretty cool! I'd like to see the original image.

OK, here it is.