How to Make a Bokeh Effect in DesignScape

You can make a cool Bokeh effect in DesignScape with our tutorial. Bokeh is a photographic technique where points of light are blurred creatively. We will guide you through the steps to add this aesthetic blur to any photo. You can access DesignScape with the Gold Plus level. If you're not a member yet, sign up for a free 30 Day Trial of the Gold Plus Membership today. The membership will also give you access to the Plus Hub with tons of great designs and fonts. We will be using a product from the Plus Hub in today's tutorial.

During this tutorial, we will make use of a beautiful forest landscape photo and a bokeh background effect. Let’s begin by dragging and dropping our image into DesignScape.

Step 1 - Create Background Selection for Bokeh

We are going to create a background selection. This will prepare the background in order to create the Bokeh effect. First, right click on the Background layer and select Duplicate.

We want to apply the Bokeh to the background behind the tree and rocks. So we need to create a selection first. With the duplicate layer selected, click + hold on the Selection tools to open the menu options. Now click on Quick Selection.

In the top toolbar, the Mode will be set to New. Adjust the Brush size to about 15 px. Click + drag on the background to create a rough selection.

Step 2 - Refine Background Selection

With the rough selection made, we want to invert the selection so the tree and foreground is selected. Go to the menu toolbar at the top and click on Select > Inverse.

Now click on the Refine button on the top toolbar. Here you can refine the selection further by using the white, gray or black options. For more information on how to use the refine option, click on the Help file or Tutorial on the right top corner.

We used white to paint in areas we wanted to keep, black for areas we didn’t want and gray to blend between the two.

Step 3 - Add the Bokeh Background

The Bokeh background that we selected is packaged as a Smart Object kit. This will allow us to independently edit it as we want.

Rename Layers

Let us quickly rename our layers to Forest Background for the bottom layer, and Selection for the top layer. Do this by double clicking on the layer name and renaming it.

Now, select the Forest Background layer. Then drag + drop the Bokeh background file into Designscape. It should be placed between the Forest Background and Selection layers.

Resize Bokeh Background

Don’t worry about the look right now, we will be editing that soon. We also adjusted the image size to fill the background.

Edit Bokeh as a Smart Object

You will notice that the Bokeh layer, called Main Template, looks a little different. It is a Smart Object layer. So double click it and a new window will open. Here you can edit the background as needed.

Click on the drop down arrow for the layer Select Base Here to open the group. Click on the eye icons for layers 01 to 02 and 04 to 08 to hide them. We only want layer 03 to be visible.

Next, click on the drop down arrow for the layer Select Bokeh Here. Open the group for Small and hide all layers except Small Bokeh 01. Then do the same for the layer Big, hiding all layers except Big Bokeh 04.

In order to apply this edit, we need to go to File > Save (Smart Object).

Click back on to the forest file that you are applying the Bokeh effect to. You will see that the edits have been saved. Make sure the Bokeh layer is still selected, then change the Blend Mode to Overlay and reduce the Opacity to 66%.

Step 4 - Add a Blur to the Bokeh Effect

In this final step, we are going to add a slight blur to the Bokeh effect. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and in the window input a value of about 3 px, depending on your image.

As the filter is applied to a Smart Object, it becomes a non-destructive layer and can be edited later on. To edit just click on Gaussian Blur beneath the Bokeh effect to open the editing options.

You can edit your image further with more Bokeh effects. To add Bokeh with the same amount of blur, double click to open the Bokeh Smart Object. Then make the layers you want visible. You can also change the base layer if needed.

To add Bokeh but with less blur, just right click > Duplicate the Bokeh (Main Template) layer. Then edit as before.

The Bokeh layer can be scaled up or down and rotated as you want. You can then save the image in a file format of your choice. The image below is the result of adding a Bokeh effect.

Adding a Bokeh effect to your image gives a magical, dreamy touch. With the techniques used in this tutorial, you can create the most amazing images. We hope that you enjoyed following this tutorial on how to make a Bokeh effect in DesignScape.