In this tutorial I am going to show you how to create a whooshing sky effect on your photography. This can also be used to create a motion blur effect, to show speed down a long straight road or path. Everything in this tutorial can be done using any recent version of Adobe Photoshop. Including Elements, which I will be using for this tutorial. The final picture will look like this:
This technique can create very dramatic effects that can improve a photo a lot.
Step 1:
Open up your image in photoshop.
Step 2:
Use the rectangular selection tool to select your skyline. If your skyline isn’t straight, use the Polygonal Lasso tool.
Here, I have deselected the small buildings on the skyline. I do this by holding ALT and then drawing a box around the area I want to de-select. I have also highlighted the area in red so you can see what I have selected.
Step 3:
Once you’ve got your sky selected, go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur
Set the Blur Method to “Zoom”, then your ready to start testing the Amount.
Now’s the tricky part, you need to look at your picture and decide where you want the zoom to center. Its no good having your picture zooming into the top right hand corner, it’ll look wrong. So try to pick the spot where a lead-in ends, such as a long road or a path. Here, I’ve used a long walkway and positioned my zoom center at the end.
Important note: If your skyline isn’t at the bottom of your photo, you will need to treat the positioning box as your selection. So If you place the zoom center at the bottom of the box, the zoom will go level with your skyline.
Step 4:
Put the quality to Medium or Low and experiment with the Amount of zoom applied. The reason your using lower quality, is its faster. If you go straight for best, it can sometimes take a couple of minutes to work it out. So it can be frustrating when you’ve been sat watching nothing for 2 minutes only to find out your picture is a frantic blur of nothing.
Once you’ve got your Amount right, set the quality to Best and let it work. I usually use around 40-60 Zoom, so try around those figures.
If you are totally happy with your settings, click OK and wait for it to load.
Finished!
Photoshop;The Swoosh Effect
Re: Photoshop;The Swoosh Effect
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