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31 October 2023

We spied these three pumpkins from across the street. We had the equivalent of a 300mm lens in our hands so we zoomed in and took the shot. We knew we'd have enough pixels for a 500-pixel image here.

Pumpkins. Nikon D300 with 18-200mm Nikkor at 200mm, f8, 1/1000 second and ISO 200. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.

We used Camera Raw's Geometry panel in Auto mode to straighten the verticals. That's all we had to do there.

But there was another problem.

The bench behind the pumpkins was perfectly in focus, making it hard to focus on the three pumpkins which were the subject of the shot.

If we'd been able to tell f8 was going to be too sharp even at 200mm, we might have opened the lens up, but it only gets to about f5.8. So it might not have solved the problem in camera.

Fortunately Adobe has provided "early access" to its Lens Blur technology in the latest Camera Raw. So we gave it a try.

It did blur the bench nicely. Hurray.

But it also blurred the stems on the pumpkins. Not so hurray.

It does offer an adjustment for the focal range (which has a very helpful "Visualize Depth" option which displays a mask over the affected area so you know what's gong to be sharp). But that didn't help.

Camera JPEG. Where we started from.

But then we noticed the little Refine option with its tiny triangle. When we clicked on the triangle, we could select whether we wanted to paint in focus or blur with options for Amount, Brush Size, Feather and Flow.

So we painted in the stems. And, pop, they were in focus.

That's how a photographer decorates for Halloween.


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