STEP BY STEP TILT-SHIFT A TRAIN

Use Photoshop filters and selection tools to change the depth of field for a miniature effect

01 Use Tilt-shift

Open tilt-shift_before in Photoshop. Go to the Layers panel and hit Cmd/ctrl+j to duplicate the background layer, then right-click on the duplicate and ‘Convert to Smart Object’. Next, go to Filter>blur Gallery>tiltshift. Drag the centre point over the front of the train.

02 fine-tune The blur

Use the dial to control the strength of the blur. Drag the horizontal lines to change the transitions between sharp and soft. Increase the noise amount slider to add a touch of noise to the blurry areas so the grain matches the sharp parts. Hit OK.

03 select The steam

Here, our steam looks unnaturally blurry. Click the eye icon to hide the top layer and highlight the bottom layer. Grab the Quick Selection tool and paint over the steam to select it. Once done, hit Cmd/ctrl+j to copy it to a new layer.

04 open The smart layer

Drag the steam layer to the top and reveal the blurred layer. It looks sharper, but has blurry edges. Doubleclick the thumbnail on the blurred layer to open the smart object in a new window. Click the new layer icon in the Layers panel to create a new empty layer.

05 clone away The edges

Grab the Clone tool and set Sample: All Layers at the top. We want to clone away the edge of the steam so that the blur doesn’t show in our main image. Alt-click to sample nearby from the trees and paint to clone. Once done, close the image and save when prompted.

06 boost The Tones

Finally, we’ll boost the contrast and colour for a more ‘toy’ look. Highlight the top layer, click the Create Adjustment Layer icon and choose Levels. Go to the Blend Mode dropdown in the Layers panel and choose Overlay. Lower the layer opacity to tone it down.