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PHOTOSHOP MASTERY BEN WILLMORE

Desaturate Edges to Steer Viewers’ Attention

When adjusting an image it’s always a challenge to hold your viewers’ interest for a long period of time. Since the eye is drawn
to color, one method for steering their attention to the center of the image is to make sure there are no overly colorful areas
near the edge of the frame.

Let’s start by isolating the edges of the image so that any
changes we make will not affect the central portion we
want to protect. Select the Elliptical Marquee tool (nested
under the Rectangular Marquee tool [M]), click near the
upper-left corner of the image, and drag to the lower-right
corner of the image. When creating this selection, don’t
click right on the corner, instead, leave a small gap between
the corner and the area where you click and release the
mouse so that the resulting selection doesn’t come in con-
tact with the edge of the document. Once you’ve made the
selection, choose Select>Inverse to change the selection
from having the central portion of the image selected to
having the outer edge area selected.
REDUCE VIBRANCE
With the selection still active, choose Layer>New Adjust-
ment Layer>Vibrance and click OK. In the Adjustments
panel (Window>Adjustments), move the Vibrance slider
toward the left until the edge of the image looks to be
visibly less colorful than the central portion of the image
(in our example, we used –80 to make it easy to see in
print, but normally I’d use a setting closer to –40). Note: The
selection that was active was converted into a layer mask
that’s attached to the Vibrance adjustment layer shown in
the Layers panel.
A vibrance adjustment will concentrate on the mel-
low colors in the image while the more colorful areas are
affected less and less as they become more saturated. That
means you can get away with fairly radical changes because
naturally saturated objects (such as intensely colored flow-
ers) will still look appropriate, while the more subtle shades
will get a boost without looking overdone or out of place.
› › p h ot o s h o p u s e r › j a n u a r y / f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 1
still having an influence on where they focus (sounds sneaky,
doesn’t it?).
SOFTEN TRANSITION
At this point, the changes we’ve made to the image should be
rather obvious due to the abrupt transition between the area
adjusted and the rest of the image. To make that transition
less noticeable, with the Vibrance adjustment layer still active,
choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and adjust the Radius slider
until you no longer notice the transition. There’s no perfect
setting that works with all images since the size and resolu-
tion of the image will radically affect your results. Just look
at the image and keep increasing the setting until you don’t
notice the transition. In our example, we used 50 pixels.
ADJUST OPACITY
Feel free to lower the opacity if the effect is a little too strong
and artificial. I usually take the opacity down to zero and then
slowly increase it while watching the image to determine
how much of a change I can get away with without having
the effect be overly noticeable.
EDIT LAYER MASK
If the image contains any large areas that don’t vary much in
color or brightness (like a simple blue sky), then this technique
might be too obvious. In that case, use the Brush tool (B) to
paint with a black, soft-edged brush wherever you don’t
want the adjustment to affect your image.
Using this technique can help prevent viewers from wast-
ing too much time investigating the edges of your image,
and instead keep them focused right where you want them,

The hope is that the adjustment will be subtle enough so drawn like a magnet to the world you’ve captured and
that viewers are unaware they’re being manipulated while manipulated (ever so slightly) for their viewing pleasure. ■

Initial selection made with the Result of reducing Vibrance After blurring the layer mask, the transition has been
Elliptical Marquee tool softened and the effect is less noticeable, but still effective.

PHOTOSHOP HALL OF FAMER Ben Willmore is a nomad exploring America via motorcoach. Catch his latest adventure by visiting his
blog at www.whereisben.com, see his photography at www.thebestofben.com, and find out about his seminars, conference appearances, best-selling
066 books, DVDs, and other educational products at www.digitalmastery.com.
ALL IMAGES BY BEN WILLMORE

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