The book I'm using to teach myself is useless if I don't know what to look up. This is what I want to do in Elements: the focal point of the photo is in focus but the farther you get out from the focal point, the more out of focus the photo becomes. What's it called?
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Try what's called a "Radial Blur" by Photoshop, if Elements has the option available.
Aperture and f-stop is what creates a blurry BG when photographing, but I don't think there is a technical word for that look, "depth of field" maybe!? Maybe look up "correcting aperture or f-stop settings" or "create a blurred background in a portrait"?? I'm not 100% sure what the question is, and I've been in your place before, if you don't know the word, how do you ask the question!!! So frustrating! Let me know if I'm in the ballpark, I can take another shot if you have some feedback from my reply! Hang in there!
found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04JcPIYBhuM
Along the lines of what Rachel said, the filter I'd use in photography if I wanted the center in focus but everything else blurred around it would be a spot focus filter.
Here's a tutorial on how to create spot focus in PSE: http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/learn/Photoshop_Elements/spot_color_focus/1_spot_focus.htm
Thanks for the info. I was looking for adjusting the picture before placing it in the template. I'm not much of a photographer--don't even own a working camera at this point. Holly West gave the hint I needed to find what I needed.
Thanks, Holly. I've bookmarked it.
You're absolutely welcome, Susan. I'm glad Rachel mentioned F-stop and triggered my memory of the filter stack out in my camera bag.
LOL, TEAMWORK!!!
Yep, teamwork! One of the best things about this community.
@Susan Lamb: I am using PSE 12 and you can get this depth of field effect hitting the guided option in PSE12 on the top center of the screen. There are some neat effets on the left like DOF and burst zoom, check out those first. The guided editing option will apply the effect on the entire page not on a selected layer, so you might want to copy paste your pic in question to a new file beforehand. HTH
Its so nice to see a group that is helping each other . I am new here and it is encouraging to me!