Photoshop :: Make A Photo Seem To Have Shorter Depth Of Field? 

Have you ever wanted to make a photo seem to have shorter depth of field?  Prior to Photoshop CS6 this was no small feat to achieve digitally and end up with a pleasing and visually believable result.
 
Photographers know that setting the aperture wide can change the mood of a shot completely.  Sometimes getting the DOF just right can make the difference between an "also ran snapshot" and an award winning photograph.
 
With today's smaller digital sensors - and even with big sensors if too small an aperture is available - sometimes we get an image that's exposed right, that's composed well, that's caught the moment.  More of it is sharp than we'd like, and the background or foreground is simply distracting.
 
Enter the new Photoshop CS6 blur filters.With the Tilt-Shift variant, one can progressively blur pixels based on a definable gradient/mask, so that we get that familiar progressive front-to-back blur change.
 
Armed with this powerful new capability, and with the subject masking/separation facilities we've had for a couple of versions now, this becomes possible:
 
1.  Separate subject from surroundings with a good mask - e.g., quick select, refine edge, make a new layer with just the parts you want to remain sharp showing on it.  A good mask isn't difficult to make any more!  Hide this layer when done.
 
2. Remove the subject, at least around the edges, from the background layer underneath, e.g., by selecting using the above mask, expanding the selection, and doing Content Aware Fill and/or Cloning.  This is important because in the subsequent blur operation we don't want parts of the sharp subject blurring into the background.  That just looks weird.
 
3. Use Photoshop CS6's Tilt-Shift Blur to visually shorten the DOF in the background layer, with the center point and unblurred region set to coincide with the position of the subject in the shot.  Adjust the settings to taste, which isn't as much of a crap shoot any more since the blurs actually update in real time on screen.
 
4.  Make the layer above visible, maybe do some things with the lighting (which is fairly easy, now that subject is separated from the background), and voila, a whole new feel to the photo.