Portrait bokeh is not "blur harder": highlight discs and edge roll-off reveal fake depth
`portrait-bokeh` covers social covers, light editorial portraits, and small commercial sets. Real lens blur softens non-linearly with distance; specular points stretch into elliptical discs, while a plain Gaussian wash turns backgrounds into flat paste and can leave faces oddly crisp or oddly flat. Busy bookshelves, venetian blinds, and fine textures that disappear uniformly read as compositing, not optics. Flyaways, faux-fur collars, and sheer fabric are where halos, gray seams, and stair-stepping appear—check every strand before feed crops. Mixed or backlit scenes lose background highlights too aggressively, key ratios drift, and the portrait looks relit. Vertical masters cropped to square or horizontal hero cards may cut through shoulders or props once blur shifts visual mass. Re-encoded JPEGs often show mosquito noise and banding along the sharp/blur boundary; prefer higher quality factors or lossless intermediates. Batch presets should fix both strength and skin protection; otherwise a nine-grid carousel mixes DSLR-like frames with sticker-like frames.
Portrait bokeh workflow
- In `portrait-bokeh`, confirm the subject mask: backlit hair, jewelry, and translucent clothing must not be treated as background.
- Increase blur gradually, validate highlight bokeh and skin, then preview at the platform’s crop aspect ratio.
- Export with strength and color-space notes; keep an unblurred master for new crops or re-exports.