lightroom 2 question

[Maria_F]

Hi there
i have some images that are way too sharp throughout and I'd to reduce the sharpness / clarity in the background. Can anyone suggest the best way to do this with Lightroom 2?
tia
Maria

[Martin_Doudoroff]

The nature of your question isn’t entirely clear to me. It sounds like you want to take an image that has a very wide depth of field (foreground and background are in focus) and make it look like it has a narrow depth of field (foreground is in focus, background is blurry). If this is what you want to do, then you need Photoshop; this sort of processing is well outside Lightroom's current capabilities.

However, you’re employing terms like sharpness and clarity, which mean very specific things in the context of Lightroom. If all you want to do is tweak the sharpness and clarity of portions of your image, then you can use Lightroom's local correction tool to paint more/less of each.

[Maria_F]

thanks Martin
Yes you are exactly right sorry if I didn't explain properly. why wouldn't reducing the sharpness and clarity of the background locally in LR2 achieve this effect?

[Dennis_Vied]

Originally Posted by Maria_F

thanks Martin
Yes you are exactly right sorry if I didn't explain properly. why wouldn't reducing the sharpness and clarity of the background locally in LR2 achieve this effect?

Because the action would affect the whole shot instead of only the background. You have to be able to mask off the foreground from the background in order to be able to work on the background alone, and I don't think you have the proper tools in LR to do that. That's why you probably need Photoshop to do it properly.

Also, using the Blur filter in PS, you have finer control of the amount of blurring you want.

[Martin_Doudoroff]

Originally Posted by Maria_F

Yes you are exactly right sorry if I didn't explain properly. why wouldn't reducing the sharpness and clarity of the background locally in LR2 achieve this effect?

The automasking feature in Lightroom 2's local correction tool might give you adequate control in distinguishing between the foreground and background—provided you had just the right foreground subject—but no amount of negative sharpness in Lightroom is going to significantly blur the image: Lightroom's sharpness algorithm is about relatively subtle sharpness adjustments. The clarity feature in Lightroom is a mid-tone contrast adjustment tool and has nothing whatsoever to do with what you want. Lightroom has great tools for bringing out the best in your properly-executed photographs. If you want to drastically change the nature of the photograph—such as reworking the image's depth of field—you're going to do that surgery in Photoshop. Or reshoot the photo correctly... lipstick on a pig and all that.

[Maria_F]

ah I see
thanks!

[Maria_F]

Originally Posted by Dennis_Vied

Because the action would affect the whole shot instead of only the background. You have to be able to mask off the foreground from the background in order to be able to work on the background alone, and I don't think you have the proper tools in LR to do that. That's why you probably need Photoshop to do it properly.

Also, using the Blur filter in PS, you have finer control of the amount of blurring you want.

thanks Dennis
whenever I've tried that in photoshop I have found it difficult to make it look natural -any tips on selecting and feathering?
tia
Maria