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Motion Blur Filter
Motion Blur is a most effective method of adding a feeling of action to an image.
- Open image number 03.jpg in the
Samples-Blur
folder.
We have a background of blurred grass and the hand holding the stopwatch, which is sharp.
The background is blurred enough but we are going to make the hand look a little more active.
- In the top right corner of the Layers palette is a small arrow. Pressing on this arrow brings up a menu. Select Duplicate Layer. Rename it 'Blurred hand' and press Enter or Return.
- Choose Filter > Blur > Motion Blur.
Set the Angle at 25 degrees and the Distance to 30. Press Enter.
This means the top watch layer is very blurred while the lower has a watch which is still sharp. - Now we want the watch face to be mainly sharp. The Eraser Tool can be used here, simply to rub out the bits we don't want. The trouble is that portion of the image is removed permanently.
A better way is to use a mask, which will merely hide the areas we don't want to see.
- Have the blurred hand layer active.
At the bottom of the Layers palette, click on the Add vector mask icon.
- Press B for the Brush Tool.
- Have the toolbox foreground and background colours set to default, by pressing D and X to have black on top.
Via the options bar, choose a brush size of 80 with 0% Hardness.
Enter an Opacity of 30%.
- Place the Brush over the centre of the watch and work it round and outwards in a spiral motion. Repeat this action but in a smaller spiral. Do this several times so that the centre of the sharp watch from the layer below shows through.
The motion blur increases outwards. Much of the hand and the sleeve will remain blurred.
A fairly low opacity allows more control.
With a mask, adjustments can be made and mistakes remedied.
- Press x to switch the foreground and background colours around - white should now be on top.
- Now with a white brush, brush over the watch again. This brings back the mask and restores the blur of the top layer.
- Use black and white brushes until you are happy with the extent of the sharp watch face and blurred surround.
- A mask can be saved with an image in layers. It can then be opened at a later date and further changes made; something which cannot be done if the Eraser had been used.
Tip
Save images in layers as much as possible. This takes up more memory, but CDs and DVDs are so cheap now the cost is hardly important. After you have finished a difficult selection, it makes sense to keep it.
At a later date someone might want that hand holding a stopwatch, but with a running track as a background. If it has been saved in layers, then the job is almost done. Not that you tell the client that, of course.
Back to the top of
Motion Blur
Gaussian Blur
Radial Blur
The How to Use Photoshop page
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