This tutorial will teach you how to make your photos look like it was taken using an slr or any camera with macro mode on. Personally, I like my photos with a bit of blur and isolation. And I’m going to show you how you can do that through basic photoshop! : )

Note: CMD is COMMAND for mac. Use CTRL for windows.

Reference photo & the outcome

First, open the image on photoshop. In the layers window, duplicate the image by selecting it and CMD + J.

Choose the Lasso Tool from the toolbar.

Just outline around the object completely (the outline should be blinking after!).

Don’t draw around it too exactly or the outcome would look a bit off.

Inverse selection by CMD + SHIFT + I 

While still having the Lasso Tool selected, a “Refine Edge” button should appear somewhere on the top left.

Adjust the edge to your liking. Move the Feather, Smooth and Shift Edge bars. Click OK.

After that, it’s blur time! Follow as shown above.

For this photo, I used 7.0 pixel radius. Make sure the Preview is enabled!

Effect.

Select both layers and merge them together by CMD + E.

Notice how the straw looks a bit off here. I just used the blur tool to make it look softer.

Here’s outcome #1. Played around with the Color Levels to make it look a bit vintage.

Outcome #2 that was applied with a “Sharpen” filter. : )

That’s super easy, right? : )