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photo by Donald Kinney
Quite a while ago I figured out that Photoshop's "Smart Blur" filter can turn an otherwise ho-hum photo into something rather interesting. Photoshop offers a wide range of blur tools, including Box Blur, Gaussian Blur, Lens Blur, Motion Blur, Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Surface Blur, and my old favorite -- Smart Blur. Smart Blur blurs the inside detail while retaining the clarity of the edges -- pretty smart, huh? With Smart Blur you have two main settings; "Radius", which (for a 640x427px final image) I usually set to 3 -- and "Threshold", which I usually set to 25. Changing those values will lead to a variety of results, so that's where the fun of experimentation comes in.
While first learning Photoshop most everybody goes-wild experimenting with the wide variety of other filters -- and really, some of them are truly amazing -- but it's best not to over-do them too much, as they can become tiresome after a while. But like I mentioned, they're sometimes great for turning an otherwise ho-hum photo into something rather interesting...
Here's a photo of you know who, using the Radial Blur:
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9 comments:
Ah yes, the wonders of Photoshop - one of my favourite tools ever! ;) Really like the one of 'you know who'. Happy weekend!
great effects! i wish i knew how to use photoshop. i have the latest one loaded on my laptop but am wasting it by never using it! :^(
You never overuse whatever it is that Photoshop has to offer. That is in my future, so I completely don't understand it now, but your results are always perfect. Love the cat.
That filter has a wonderful effect!
That photo of you-know-who looks wonderful. I don't have Photoshop, but I have been thinking about getting it. Everyone seems to really enjoy it.
Beautiful sky photo, enhanced by the blur effect. It does do a great job of focusing attention to one particular part of a picture. That is a gorgrous sunrise that you posted for Sky Watch Friday.
Nice job, not overdone. I don't think I would have noticed if you had not pointed it out.
I think the greatest asset of Photoshop is to produce a photograph that is representative of what you remember in your mind's eye, and not what the camera just happened to capture.
troy
They both turned out really neat!
Cool! Who is that cat?
OK, I'm kidding ;)
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