Enhancing image quality with Gaussian Blur...(Beginner)

[Misao]

Meant for newbies, but if you want to try it out, go ahead. Sometimes I even wonder if I should've posted it here in the first place, since soooooo many sites seem to have their own Blur Techniques to share!. -_-"

*Note: This tutorial can be done in all versions of photoshop*

This is a very simple techinque that can make a huge (or small) difference to your picture. Either way, it makes the picture look softer, smoother and gives it a "burst" of color To a normal person, they may not see a huge difference (or a difference at all..) but to a web designer who has a critique eye, they WILL notice the difference. This techinque can be used for almost anything, including layouts. Try it out and see for yourself!

Okay, on with the tutorial. Make sure you know where the layer style palette and the filter menu is. If not....I can't help you. Lol :lol:

::1:: Yes, yes yes. Very important - Choose an image! You can't work with a blank canvas, could'ya? Okay, don't be offended. I'll be using this picture of Yahiko Myojin from the Rurouni Kenshin cartoon series. Here it is:



Yeah, yeah. Some of you may think that it looks nice enough, but note that not all images that you can find are of high quality!

::2:: Duplicate the image - you should have 2 layers now, both the same image. If I'm not mistaken, your top layer will now say "Background copy" because it's the duplicate, no?

::3:: MAKE SURE you are working on the top layer. Go to the blending mode drop-down menu in the layer palette, and select "Overlay".

Your image should look something like this...



It looks a bit orangey and fierce, no?

::4:: Got to Filters>>Blur>>Gaussian Blur. Set the radius to 2.0 pixels.

::5:: You should have something like this:



Still as orangey and dark, but a bit softer and smoother, right? ^_^

::6:: This is entirely UP TO YOU. If you want the image to look less dark or orangey, go to the layer palette and lower the opacity of the blurred layer to 50% or something else - it depends on your taste. The higher the opacity, the more evident the change in your image. I chose 50% percent, and this is what I got:



Compare this to the first one and you'll see that there are changes in lil' Yahiko's features - his hair and skin tone. The image of him looks a bit brighter too.

Well...that's it. Hope anyone who seriously needed another blur tutorial was helped. ^_^