OSXFAQ Mac OS X Design Tip-of-the-Day  

On its own, the new Surface Blur filter can be very useful in blurring surfaces in photographs while preserving edge detail. Couple this with layer masks and you've got yourself a great way to retouch an image. Try this: Press Command-J to create a duplicate layer of the photograph you're working on. On the top copy, choose Filter>Blur>Surface Blur, choose settings that blur your photograph just enough (I chose a Radius of 5 and a Threshold of 15 pixels but you can adjust these settings accommodate your image), then click OK. You'll notice that even though Surface Blur preserves some of the edge detail, you'll often lose a bit of detail in the process. To fix this, just add a layer mask by selecting the Add Vector Mask icon in the Layers palette. Now press D to set your foreground to black and then press B to select the Brush tool. Now, paint over your blurred image to bring back some of the original detail.

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