Step 11

Our channel is now ready and it’s time to play with the Lens Blur Filter, and we’ll perform it on a duplicated layer of background Retouch and name it background Lens Blur. Select the duplicated layer and go to Filter menu and choose Blur > Lens Blur and a dialog window will appear.

Settings are shown on screenshot and notified in the text.
Under Depth Map: Source, we’ll choose the Custom channel we created and select alpha channel Lens Blur. Leave Blur focal distance at 0, and let Inverted be checked.

Under Iris, Shape is set to Hexagon (6), Radius at 19, Blade Curvature 0, Rotation 0.
Specular Highlights: Brightness 0, Threshold 255, Noise: amount 0, Distribution: Uniform, Leave monochromatic unchecked.

The background has now a Lens Blur filter applied and is ready to have the remaining elements added.

Step 12

There are two more things I want to adjust with the background, before we’ll focus on our furry friends and their fancy boat & Accessories. I want to brighten up the upper half of the background and we’ll do so by applying a Gradient Fill layer.

We’ll need to use the Lens Blur channel we created for the new Gradient fill layer Mask. Go to the Channel layer palette and Command/Ctrl + click on the Lens Blur channel, this will make a selection of the white tones in the channel.

With our selection active, we’ll go to the Layers Palette and hold down the ALT key, while we press down the adjustment layer button, choose Gradient from the drop-down list. A dialog window will appear and we’ll name the Gradient Fill layer soft light – Lens Blur inverted. Set the blending Mode to Soft Light and click OK.

A Gradient editor window will appear and the only thing we’ll change are the colors, so click on the gradient color and a new dialog window will appear. Select the lower left arrow and then click on the color box, a color picker window will appear. We are going to make the color a neutral gray (50%), reason is since we set the layer blending to soft light, a neutral gray will be 100% hidden. Fill the color with the following RGB values: 128, 128, 128. Click OK and we’ll return to the Gradient editor.

Now select the lower right arrow and click on the color, we’ll set the RGB values to: 243, 243, 243.
Click on the top arrows on both left and right and check if they are set at 100% Opacity, and then click OK, we’ll now return to the gradient fill option.

In the Gradient Fill dialog, we’ll leave the Style to Linear, angle to 90, Scale 100, Revers and Dither unchecked and Check Align with layer. Click OK and our gradient is now finished.

Step 13

There is one more thing I want to add to the background photo, before we start adding the other elements to the project. I want to darken the highlight in the center of the ocean, so Lets us make a new Layer, and we’ll do so by ALT + click on the layer button in the Layers Palette (Shortcut is Command/Ctrl + SHIFT + N).

Name the layer Darken – 20% since we are going to set the Blending to Darken and Opacity 20%, click ok when done.

Select the brush tool and set the size at about 900px and the hardness 0%, set your color RGB values: 78, 116, 152. and set brush opacity to 100%

Tone down the highlight in the center of the ocean, just below the shore, see screenshot for reference of the brushed area.

When finished, your result should look like my screenshot. Save the file as a Nutty_Boat_Trip-01.PSD or something better

Step 14 – Flour Shakers

Now we can finally focus on the other elements of our project, and we’ll start by focusing on the Flour Shakers photo, since it’ll be used as the boat for our squirrels. Let’s open the filed called “kitchen_tools_09.jpg” in Photoshop. The first thing you’ll notice is the image lacks a color profile, so go to edit > assign color profile. In the dialog window select a Adobe RGB 1998 color profile and click OK. (editor：photoshop1)