Blur the background

Wendy Evans explains how to change the depth of field in telephoto shots using the Lens Blur tool in Lightroom or Camera Raw

- Wendy Evans

Of course, we all want a 600mm lens that offers a fast, f/2.8 aperture but affording one is another matter. I have a 180-600mm lens, but at 350mm focal length, the best it can offer is f/6. As you can see from the shot above, that means that although the background is out of focus, it still conflicts with the figure, because he's in uniform and the background has modern elements to it.

The solution is to mask and blur the background, but producing graduated masks isn't fun. However, Photoshop's Camera Raw has a solution that involves using AI to recognise what's in the photo and then produce a 3D depth map.

1 Let it be Raw

The filter that's going to help us here is tucked away inside Camera Raw and is available for both Lightroom and Photoshop. Go to Filter > Camera Raw, scroll down the panel on the right to Lens Blur and click on Apply.