Hi
Do you folks use the blur slider in local adjustment ?
I have M43 camera, so there are times i would like to have less depth of field. I use negative microcontrast and when not enough, try to put a little of blur. But the blur is too strong, only useable at value less than 5 or 10 to my taste.
Couldn’t it be more progressive ?
I use it as selection modes in brushing a object as good as possible.
And it’s fun to use to create a skewed not leveld DoF. Like having a road from lower left to upper right and by bluring along the road you guide the eye’s.
Miniature look does the same by the way.
The local adjustment blur control can be a little bit difficult to apply precisely, even when pulling the mouse to the right for finer gradations in Windows. I’m not sure the Mac version has the ability to do the same thing with the mouse.
Yes, the blur slider is very strong and the max intensity could easily be reduced to 25% of the current max value to make it easier to use. You can of course reduce the layer opacity to fine tune the result. Do you use it with the gradient mask to feather the blur?
1 Like
Yes when i can use it, sometimes radial gradient would be useful but in that case i use a big brush that i invert, not so practical though. Good advice for reducing opacity, must admit i didn’t think of it
Thanks
I have good results using a brush to apply a blur. Keep the flow rate low (25% works for me) and keep applying the effect (it accumulates). If the effect is too strong, press and hold the Alt button for the eraser tool and slowly reduce the effect.
I’ve had good results by using Auto-mask over the key subject, then inverting the mask (so that it now applies to everything except the key subject) and then applying a small amount of blur to the (inverted) mask … so that the background appears slightly out-of-focus.
I agree, tho, that it can be tricky to get the right amount of blur when the slider effect is so strong … this difficulty could be alleviated if adjustment of Local Adjustment sliders was consistent with ability to adjust Global sliders - as requested/proposed here.
Regards, John M
3 Likes
Have already voted for this one 
Wish all functionalities were proposed in local adjustment especially tsl
1 Like
Btw when using control point i noticed that blur is applied a bit everywhere whereas negative micro contrast is more selectively applied. Have you notice that ?
I had not noticed that specifically, but it does make sense; Micro Contrast works only on “very small details” … according to the “?” (Help) button on the Global tool.
John
Hit M and you see the influence mask of the controlpoint.
Use ctrl? To create a protective negative controlpoint to exclude a area from the controlpoint.
It’s basic behaviour of a controlpoint.
Edit: Micro contrast is only active on “edges” and details wile blur is more overrulling the sharpnes. More agresive i think in the mask intensitylevels
If I invert a control point in local adjustments and apply the blur control, everything is blurred, also the area that should’nt be. Sort of misbehaviour.
Andre,
If you’re using a control point, and the area of influence is small, and the effect is inverted, it may appear to not work. Try a larger area. Also, I have better results with the brush.
I’ve tried the brush. Same result. The area might be too small, yes.
It’s possible to get a good result with Analog Efex from the Nik Collection or one or the other filter in Color Efex Pro. But I would prefer not to switch to another application.
I like the brush because I can control the area of the effect and the flow, thus the amount of the effect. Furthermore, it’s and additive and can be erased.
Thanks for feedback
I think it is, in the end, all related to the strength of the blur tool. Even dark Grey areas(after hitting M) seem well impacted unless you protect the areas as you described to have a true black zone. Other tools seems not really active on dark grey areas.
Yes, your probably right.
Smooth post blurring is difficult.
I played with the miniature tool which can be used to soften the outer sections of a image and give some extra focus on the centre.blurring with gradient is also fine if you set the 100% section outside the image and only use the fading section. Like a vignetting tool i made with 6 gradient filters.
The brushing in multistrook is a option but difficult to decide which strenght per strook is needed.
When i have time i think i try some different approaches. Can be handy skill in some moments.