Hey,
I found two photos that are artistically blurred and was wondering if you guys knew which blur they used to get the effects.

Also, I'm guessing for the dragonfly, they removed the leaf and dragonfly, blurred the background, then placed the leaf/dragonfly back in. Is this the way to go?

TIA,
Jen


PBJ Sandwich (http://img423.imageshack.us/img423/3709/pbjke7.png)
Dragonfly (http://img423.imageshack.us/img423/7199/dragonflyyp9.jpg)

Well Maybe the dragonfly photo was taken with a lens opened up with a large aperture to give a very small depth of field. To Blur the background if it hasn't been blurred you can copy the background layer to a new layer. Then you have two options:
1.) In the copied layer, select the foreground object and delete the rest. Then select the background layer and blur it.
or
2.) Blur the copied layer and apply a layer mask to the copied layer and mask out the foreground with black.

Gaussian or Lens blur are the blur filters that I would probably use.

I'd say that was depth of field not artistic blurring. You can try to replicate it in Photoshop but it takes a lot of work to get it perfect, much easier in the camera

Hhmm, they're using a plain old point-and-shoot Canon Powershot A620, did they perhaps get additional lenses than what it came with? I know they sell those, like fish eye lenses, to add on when you need it.

looking at the specs the powershot is capable of depth of field adjustments straight out of the box

Awesome, I just got one, I guess I'll give reading the manual a try, lol. I usually just like to figure things out myself, but I suppose a digital camera is a lot different than a simplistic DVD player, with a lot more hidden gems and features.