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Smoothing out a busy background


In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with the BG so no "smoothing" needed. Darken the BG a little with a curves adjustment layer and mask, add contrast and depth to the Finch with a curves adjustment layer and mask (his back is a little blown out), and crop to rule of thirds. Great photo!

Screenshot...........not the original image.
Screen Shot 2025-06-29 at 5.26.00 PM.png
 
I like @IamSam's approach. But if you really do prefer to smooth out the background, then Surface Blur would work well.
  • Copy the image to a new layer and convert the layer to a Smart Object. The SO allows you to apply a surface blur, but then go back later and tweak the settings if you change your mind.
  • On the Smart Object layer, go to Filter>Blur>Surface Blur.
  • Temporarily move the Threshold slider all the way to the right to 255.
  • Set the Blur Radius to your desired amount, focusing on the background. Don't worry about over-blurring the bird.
  • Now move the Threshold slider back toward the left, which gradually brings the image back into focus. You want the threshold number to be as small as possible while still blurring your background. This will bring the bird 90% back into focus.
  • Lastly, go into the layer mask created by the Surface Blur and apply black to the bird and the branches he rests on, to completely undo the blur. Use a soft brush and it's ok in this case to mask away a small margin beyond the boundaries of the bird and branch, so you don't need to be exceedingly careful.

Here's mine, using Blur=37 and Threshold=18.

1751238342942.png
 


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