I need to work out how to emphasise the subject of an image in Photoshop CS2, but i dont want to have to edit the subject, so i thought i could de-emphasise the background, but how? i tried B&W, but could only find grayscale and all that did was make any layer in the .psd do it, i tried re-adding the subject layer and it still did it! any ideas? or is there anyway to take out some of the colour and blur it a bit?

PS, sorry if this is confusing, having a BAD day

i have the subject and background on separate layers, but when i tried grayscale it did it to the whole thing, and then when i added any image it put it in grayscale!

Also, i did try looking for a "Blur Layers" button, but i couldn't find it!

Quote from thisnameistaken :

The grayscale option actually limits the palette for the whole image, so yeah anything you add will go grey. Instead, select the layer/pixels you want to affect and go to Image>Desaturate. Either that or go to Hue/Saturation and roll off however much colour you want to lose with the saturation slider.

Edit: And the blurs are in the Filters menu. They affect whatever you currently have selected (pixels or a layer)

thanks kev, ill try that when i get in!

The way to remove the colour from only one layer is to go to Image>adjustments>desaturate.

Greyscaling is an image mode change, and thus is a global alteration.

As Kev pointed out the blurs are in the filters pallate

instead desaturating image try this:
- set black as your foreground color and white as background color (you can do this by pressing "D" on your keyboard)
- go to image->adjustments -> gradient map
- hit ok

just desaturating image gives weird results and looks nothing like a b&w photo would do on a film.

I rarely do image editting which is why I only use the easiest way to get this effect.

All I do (In Photoshop) is get the blur tool, and blur the background, like in the pic that i've added, Also can use the sharpen tool if you like on whatever you want to emphasize.

but is there a "blur layer" tool? would really help! If not, i can live, but also, is there any way to get a film looking B&W image?

didn't know that, ahh, Photoshop, what a cruel master!

wow! i tried it and see for yourself!

WHat you were saying about the blur layer tool, cab't you just hide the layers you don't want blurred?