How to blur big photos in photoshop?

Hi,

I’m new in this forum so, please go easy on me.
Today I was trying to blur the background of big image (16.5” x 11.7”) in Photoshop CS4 and it hardly blurs, but if I reduce the size to 4”x6” it works better, I know I could reduce the size and be happy but what if I really want that size.

Is this normal with big images? Am I doing something wrong? Any tips on how to do this when blurring big photos?

Any suggestion will be highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Fs_tigre

Where you just trying to go filter --> Blur or what? If you do this the press control F over and over it'll blur more and more.

I was actually using the blur tool. Nice shortcut!

So, you guys don’t see any difference when blurring big images vs small ones? When you are blurring a big picture it doesn’t blur as much as it does when doing a small one, no matter how many times you apply the blur filter.

Thanks,
Filemon

hhhmmm.... you know I've had that problem with rendering clouds where the clouds would look really tiny then.... I don't know what the answer is.... lol, sorry. How big is your picture though?

Picture size 16.5” x 11.7”.

hi
just a novice myself but here my thoughts...

1. first your image in inches... doesn't say much... inches generaly you think in those terms when you go to print... when it comes to editing ... what important is what is the picture deminsions that give a more clear idea.... that really tells us what were working with....
note: a 320x180 pixal image may look good on a 3x4" printed paper but would look absolutely terrible if printed at 8x10"...

2. also in this case knowing your system stats can be usefull... that let us know if you have a fast machine or a slow machine... that will effect performance of your PS ... also give us an idea how easily it can handle large images!

3. now one situation where i can get similar results that your mentioning.... could be at what zoom setting your looking at! for example...

I took one of my images that had lot of texture to it , a lot of small details.... and viewing the image at 100% and hitting it with blur tool at 100% strength and normal mode.. it doesn't appear that much bluring took place.. however afterwards!! zooming at 200 or 300% it show a lot of bluring taking place...

the reason for this.. is that for specific object in your image , at let say 100% zoom.. not that many pixels being displayed for a specific object .!!! where as when you you zoom in at 200 or 300% ... more pixals can be displayed for a giving object .... and it much more eaisly seen the results that have taking place...!!

I think this is what is what your seeing.... I may be wrong easily...lol... and misunderstand what your saying what the issue.. but I think that is what it is....

the only other thoughts... and it take practice and experience... h ow much bluring do you really want... sometimes i noticed what may look nice on the screen is sometimes alittle different than when printed ..

fs_tigre said:

Hi,

I’m new in this forum so, please go easy on me.
Today I was trying to blur the background of big image (16.5” x 11.7”) in Photoshop CS4 and it hardly blurs, but if I reduce the size to 4”x6” it works better, I know I could reduce the size and be happy but what if I really want that size.

Is this normal with big images? Am I doing something wrong? Any tips on how to do this when blurring big photos?

Any suggestion will be highly appreciated.

Thanks,
Fs_tigre

...just a note on the difference between the project to a print. If you color profile everything from your Camera --> Computer --> Printer it will all look the same. I'm hoping to get a tutorial on all that soon......

Thank you all very much! - jerrylb you are probably correct.

The blur tool, even at 100% strength, is rather subtle and it's effect may not be all that evident in a larger picture unless you zoom in.

If you really want to blur something, copy the image to it's own layer and use gaussian blur. Use a layer mask if you want to confine it to only certain areas.

Thank you all very much!

hawakeye, this technique works nice.