Selective Focus

[wolfnowl]

Hi Folks:  Came across this idea on Twitter.  It may be I'm the only one who hasn't thought of it, but while I use the graduated filters for exposure adjustments, I've never thought of using it with negative sharpness to create a focal point in one area of an image by blurring the rest of the frame.  Like any tool I'm sure it can be abused, but it's something to consider.

Mike.

[BobFisher]

Interesting.  Hadn't thought of trying that in LR.  You could probably also you -ve Clarity which can give a nice softness.  

This gives me an idea.  This might be a way to create the 'fake minature' look and apply it to a series of images via Sync Settings for a timelapse clip without having to go into PS.

[neil snape]

I have used this many times with the brush but didn't need to on the grad tool yet.  It is more subtle on LR3 than LR2.