Photoshop - different methods for bg blur

[limelizzard]

Hi everyone,

I'm just beginning to learn Photoshop, so I've been reading a lot of tutorials (A LOT). And I've noticed something that seems to be used consistently, but I don't understand the reasoning.

Here it is:

Most of the tutorials I've been reading have recommended creating a duplicate/copy layer of your background image and then either (1) creating a separate layer containing only your subject to add back over the background image once its blurred or (2) creating a reveal mask and hiding the focus area after you've blurred the rest.

My question is, is there any good reason to use one of those methods rather than using the lasso to select your subject, then selecting the inverse of that (the rest of the photo around the subject) and simply applying your desired blur effect to that?

I don't know Photoshop well enough yet to know if there is any good reason to do it the way that everyone is saying and the other way seems way faster, so I wondered if it makes a difference.

Thanks for any input! I hope my explanation made sense. Please be patient with me, as I'm learning.

[corvus2606]

using masking is alot easier to fix if you have missed something, so that would be my reasoning for using the masking method.

But might I suggest another method that yields better results with less effort... Do it in the camera

[limelizzard]

So true!! And I have learned to do that now (I just got my camera a couple months ago), I'm just trying to improve some of the pics I took in the meantime.

Thank you.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by corvus2606

But might I suggest another method that yields better results with less effort... Do it in the camera

Agreed 100%!!!! Post-processed blur almost never looks quite right.