selective focus tool - for retouching

[lutz]

A really neat toy ( obviously nothing essential) woud be a "selective focus" tool to achieve effects similarly to the lensbaby lenses.
I am thinking of a circular or oval selection ( that can be moved around freely) with steadly increasing blur towards the edges of the image (up to a selectable maximum value). Perhaps it would be good to have a lens-blur algorithm instead of the common gaussian blur.

Examples of the desired effect can be viewed for example here:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/lensbaby/
or
http://www.lensbabies.com/
http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/L3G/LBY3.HTM
A software emulation can not be expected to be perfect but perhaps better than carrying around another lens.

[Dan Kozub]

Lutz,

You can achive similar effect now by using oval frame and blurred image as background on the Frames tab. I know it is not exactly what you need but looks quite similar. I know people use it for portrait shot mostly.

[lutz]

As I said, selective focus would be only a really nice toy. The blurred framed option is absolutely wonderful for what it is supposed to - I just discovered new variations - but to achieve selective focus type of photographic effects many stars would have to align perfectly. In my hands the "blur/sharpen brush" seems the best way to get close to this kind of effects.

[lutz]

Apparently there is a new nifty selective focus tool offered by onOne. It seems to do what I suggested previously (although I do not remember suggesting such a hefty price ).
http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=35