The Artfkt collection library
Focus
Choose what stays clear and what dissolves
Focus changes where detail remains clear and how the rest of the image dissolves. Choose even softness, directional streaks, shaped defocus, a clear band, or a more expressive optical boundary.
Use it to direct attention in Artfkt, preparing a quieter background or making the blur itself the subject of an abstract image.
Included in Artfkt for Mac. All collections, one desktop studio.
Choose the clear region before increasing blur
Tilt Shift places a rotatable clear band with a gradual transition to surrounding softness. Split Diopter preserves two selected bands around a softened dividing seam. Swirl Focus keeps a focus region while stretching peripheral highlights into tangential ovals. Each directs attention through a different shape of clarity.
A source with a distinct subject and a less important surrounding area is easier to organize than one in which every detail matters. These treatments do not identify a subject automatically; place the clear region in relation to the actual image and inspect where the transition crosses important edges.
Blur can have direction and color
Gaussian Blur spreads detail evenly. Directional Blur smears along an angle, Radial Blur turns detail around a center, and Zoom Blur extends it outward. Choose the direction before the strength so the streaks support the image’s existing movement or layout.
Bokeh Blur uses a shaped aperture to give bright areas a particular optical footprint. Chromatic Blur separates color along a continuous exposure path. Bright points and strong light-dark boundaries make those shapes easier to judge than a uniformly lit surface.
Know when to strengthen an edge instead
Sharpen and Clarity increase different scales of detail and local contrast. Surface Blur smooths similar colors while preserving stronger boundaries. Analog Ringing adds overshoot around hard edges. They change the relationship between smooth areas and contours without creating the same selective-focus structure.
Check small edges separately from the overall image. Strong sharpening can make a title look harsh while a broad blur makes the background feel useful. The best balance depends on the role of each layer, so keep essential lettering outside a blurred image layer when it needs to remain crisp.
Effects in Focus
13 effects to explore and combine.
Chromatic Blur
Spread detail through a continuous colored exposure, from parallel fringes to radial bursts. Shape trail length, softness and spectral color independently.
Swirl Focus
Place a focus region and stretch surrounding highlights into tangential ovals. Source detail stays in place while its optical footprint changes.
Split Diopter
Keep two selected bands readable while a softened seam divides the image. Optional one-sided lens displacement makes the optical boundary visible.
Analog Ringing
Emphasize lettering, graphic silhouettes, and hard contrast with surrounding overshoot.
Gaussian Blur
Soften image detail evenly in every direction.
Directional Blur
Smear image detail along a chosen angle.
Zoom Blur
Pull image detail outward from a movable center.
Sharpen
Bring out fine edges and local detail.
Clarity
Lift or flatten contrast in a wide neighborhood, and ease that change where edges are already strong.
Radial Blur
Rotate sampled detail around a movable center to create circular motion blur.
Tilt Shift
Place and rotate a focus band with a gradual transition into surrounding softness.
Surface Blur
Smooth similar colors while preserving strong image boundaries.
Bokeh Blur
Spread highlights through a shaped aperture, from crisp polygons to rounded, elliptical and rim-heavy defocus.
Creative applications
- Quiet a photographic background around a clear band for a title-led composition.
- Turn bright points into shaped optical marks for abstract cover artwork.
- Use directed blur to reinforce movement while preserving a separate stable graphic layer.
Starting workflow
- For a selective-focus city study, choose a view with a clear area of interest and details extending above and below it.
- Apply Tilt Shift and place and rotate the clear band over that area before increasing surrounding softness.
- Set the band width so the subject reads as one coherent region rather than a thin accidental stripe.
- Inspect the transition across tall objects and strong edges; adjust the placement if important features become half-clear without a compositional reason.
- Compare at final size and keep the amount of softness that guides attention without making the picture difficult to understand.
Make it part of your next composition.
Combine Focus with other collections, images, and editable text in Artfkt for Mac.