Focus in Paint Shop Pro 9 or X

Paint Shop Pro allows you to do many types of photo manipulations, from subtle enhancements to complete alterations. This tutorial will show how to create a single focus in an image full of detail.

Open Paint Shop Pro, then open any image (that you own, have permission to use, or is in the public domain) that you would like to create a single focus on.

Click on the Selection Tool and make it Freehand Selection. Change the Selection type to Point to Point and Make the mode Add (Shift). Add a Feather setting of 10 - 15. Put a check in the box beside Anti-alias.

Choose a starting point on your image, click with your mouse to start the selection, and then move around the edges of the part of the image for your focus, clicking to add more points. Make sure you don't leave anything out. When you have finished selecting, right click to end the selection.

Click on Selections, and then click on Invert. Check your selection; you want it to be well within the part of your image that you wish to focus on. If it's near the edges, click on Selections again, go down to Modify, and click on Feather. Change the number of pixels to 10 and click OK. If it's still too close to the edges, you can either feather the selection again or click on Edit and then click on Undo Feather Selection and try again.

When you are satisfied with your feathered selection, click on Adjust and go to Blur. Play with different blur types and settings until you find an effect you like. You can further customize the focus by clicking on Adjust, going to Color Balance, and clicking on Negative Image. Or instead of using Color Balance, go to Hue and Saturation, click on Colorize, and play with those settings.

Once you are finished, make sure to save your image with a different name than the original.

This image manipulation can be used in a variety of ways to achieve many different effects. Use your imagination to add unique touches to personal photos or creating web graphics. These steps are compatible with Paint Shop Pro 9 and X, as well as previous versions, although in some cases the interface may have changed between versions. Tools and commands may be in different locations, and some may need to be added back through customization in order to be accessible.