Selecting a Focus Area in Adobe Photoshop

[CraigHardy]

If you take a lot of photos that have distinct focus areas, this post may be just for you. What I’m referring to here is a photo, such as an apple, that’s on a table and is completely in focus. In the photo, there’s a narrow depth of field that blurs out virtually everything but the apple. The apple is one focus area and everything else is the rest.

Did you know that Adobe Photoshop has a tool that allows you to select an object in a photo based on that object’s focus area? It’s true and it’s extraordinarily handy. Now, as I’ve stated in many previous posts that talk about making selections in Photoshop – there are many tools that can accomplish the same task. It’s your job to decipher between these tools and choose the one that’s best suited for you.

In this post, I’ll be discussing the Focus Area Selection Tool. When using this tool, Photoshop looks for defined edges and objects contained within those edges. Sometimes Photoshop gets what you want selected immediately and sometimes we need to help it along some. I’ll show you the tools that assist in both of these scenarios.

Original Photo​

I looked for a photo that had some good distinction between foreground and background. After playing with this one for a while, I thought it would work well for demonstration. Even though there are a few droplets of liquid in between, the edges of the foreground are defined enough to make a good selection.

Making the Selection​

My goal here is to select what’s in focus within this photo. I’m not concerned with anything in the background.

I’ll head up to the Select > Focus Area menu item and click.



After I click on this item, the Focus Area dialog box appears. When the box opens, it immediately begins making an analysis of the photo based on the specs that are already set.



In this case, since some of the liquid doesn’t have edges that are defined, Photoshop thinks those areas aren’t in focus. Every area that has turned white will not be in the ultimate selected area.

The slider I’m most concerned with first is called In-Focus Range. This is the slider that tells Photoshop what you consider to be in focus and what you would like included in the photo. To show you the type of effect this slider can have on a selection, I’ll move it a bit to the left and then a bit to the right. Be sure to notice what gets dropped out and what gets added back in.

Less in Focus​

More in Focus​

What I have to do is move the slider back and forth until the selected area is as accurate as it’s going to get.

Optimal In-Focus Range​

Refine Edges​

Now that I’ve figured out a pretty good selection area, I have the ability to use the Refine Edge tool that’s built right into the Focus Area tool.



If you aren’t familiar with refining selection edges, I encourage you to take a look at my post where I discuss this very topic. You can view it here:

Selecting Objects & Refining Edges in Adobe Photoshop

After I click the Refine Edge button, the Refine Edge dialog box appears. I can make some changes to the sliders from there that will really clean up the jagged edges. In the case of this photo, I want to define them and smooth them.



When you compare the edges of the screenshot directly above to those in the screenshot above that, you can see a difference.

Making the Selection​

Once I’m satisfied with what the selected areas look like, I can click OK in the Refine Edge dialog box to make the selection. Here is what part of it looks like, with marching ants and all.



I do have a bit of an issue though. If you take a look at the screenshot above, you may notice that there is an area in the upper right corner that shouldn’t be selected. Also, some of the droplets down at the bottom aren’t selected when they should be.

Since the selected area is active, I can use another selection tool, such as the Quick Selection Tool, to add to or subtract from what I already have. If you aren’t familiar with the Quick Selection tool, you can read all about it here:

Selecting & Changing a Photo Background in Adobe Photoshop

Selecting Objects & Refining Edges in Adobe Photoshop

I’ll go ahead and clean up those areas with this tool.



Ah, that’s better. Now, I have an accurate selection based on what’s in focus. I can do whatever it is I wish with it.

Changing Color​

Just for fun, I think I’ll go ahead and make the water that’s in focus pink/purple. I’ll do this simply to demonstrate, in a more clear way, what’s been selected. I’ll head over to the Layers panel and select the layer I’m interested in adjusting. Since I have only one layer, this is quite easy to do. Also, it should be selected already because I’ve been working on it. After that, I’ll click the Hue/Saturation icon in the Adjustments panel that’s directly above and move the Hue slider to the right until I see the color I like.



This is the final image. Pretty cool, huh?

 

[CraigHardy]

How to Use the Focus Area Selection Tool in Photoshop​

Sometimes, making a selection in Adobe Photoshop can be tricky. If you’re trying to select a person, animal or object that doesn’t have defined edges or that has edges that are all over the place, using the Quick Selection Tool, Magic Wand Tool or any other tool like those can offer a cumbersome experience. Basically, when making a selection, I think we can all agree that the easier time we have of it, the better. There’s no reward in spending all day trying to accomplish this type of task.

I’d like to take a moment to discuss a feature in Photoshop that will give you the ability to make a selection based on whether or not an object is in focus. If you think about a portrait of a person or of a photo of an object that’s crystal clear, but that has a background that’s all blurry, that’s exactly the type of image this tool is perfect for. Pictures that have a defined edge between the thing that’s sharp and the background that’s blurry are easy to work with when it comes to making selections.

Let’s say you’ve got a photo of a person who is standing outside in a forest. They are at least 50 feet in front of any trees and the aperture value of the camera was set to something large. Meaning, a large aperture that produced a shallow depth or field and that offered a lot of blur in the background. If the person is sharp and the background is blurry, you can go to the Select > Focus Area menu item in Photoshop and click. Give things a few seconds to settle down because right after you click, Photoshop will analyze the image and make a selection shortly thereafter. The selection will be based on the area that’s in focus.

At about the same time, you’ll notice that the Focus Area dialog appeared. There are a few settings in this dialog that need to be taken advantage of. First, adjust the Preview drop-down so you can see what’s in the selected range and what’s not. I prefer to use the red overlay for this. It allows me to view the entire image as I’m working on it. With this option, the selected area will be the regular photo while the area that’s not selected will be in a red overlay.

Next, if Photoshop didn’t make the selection the exact way you would have liked it to, you can add or subtract from what it suggested. Use the two buttons of the left to brush both types of areas to add or remove selected content. These buttons are marked with a + (plus) and a – (minus).

Finally, choose the type of Output you desire. In the case of what I’m covering today, I would say that the Selection option is a good one because it’ll give you the regular marching ants selection that we’re all used to.



So here it is in a nutshell: You’ve got a picture of someone standing in the woods. Their body and face is in focus while their background is blurry. Pretty typical. You want to make a selection of just the person, so you open your picture into Photoshop and go to the Select > Focus Area menu and click. From there, the Focus Area dialog box opens up and you choose how you want to view the image as you’re working on it. You can add to the selection or remove from it. When you’re done, you can output your product as a selection. You click the OK button to close out of the Focus Area dialog. In the end, you’ll have your original image in your original workspace with the sharp area of the photo selected. And the best part is, once you get used to this process, the entire thing will take only about five minutes to complete. It truly is a great way to make a selection based on focus area in Photoshop.

Of course, once you’ve got your selection, you can do whatever you want with it. Mask it out, add an adjustment layer so you can change the look of it. Whatever. For some ideas, please take a look at this post. You can also do a search for Focus Area above for more posts on this topic.

Do you have any experience with this method for making selections in Photoshop? If you do, would you mind sharing them down below? We’re all here to learn about the best way to do things, so I’d love to read about your own experiences. Also, if you have any questions, please ask them below too. Thanks!