The Radial Blur filter

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Radial Blur Filter

Radial blur comes in too forms - Spin and Zoom.

Adding Spin blur can make an object dance around on its background and involves rotating an image or part of an image. It can be very effective and fun to use.

The alarm clock on the right is made to bounce around with action.

With various Photoshop tricks, great control over the blur effect is possible. Varying amounts of blur can be used on different layers, so that the blur is weak in some areas and strong in others.

The point of rotation does not have to be in the centre of the image but can be over on one side or in a corner.

Zoom Blur Filter

The other part of Radial is Zoom Blur, which works like moving a zoom lens during exposure, without the hit-and-miss risk.

Both the amount of zoom can be controlled and the point from where the zoom starts. In the example on the right, the head of the leading horse is sharp and the zoom effect spreads out from there.

Both Spin and Zoom can be used to create great backgrounds to be used behind a main subject.

As with Spin Blur, layers and masks can be used to give complete control over the final result. All such tricks and techniques are covered fully in Photoshop In A Day .

At the same time, you will be able to learn about matting.

Lens Blur

Lens Blur does a pretty good job of replicating a camera's out-of-focus effect.
When part of an image is out of focus, the camera lens creates a slightly different effect from just a general fuzziness. The Lens Blur filter is certainly more accurate than Gaussian, which had to be used for this purpose before Photoshop CS.

A camera lens set to out-of-focus appears to create several versions of the subject which are blurred and overlapped. Lens blur recreates this to a large extent, while Gaussian blur is basically just degrees of softness.

photoshop tricks

The Lens Blur filter has a lot of scope and many uses, such as creating progressive out-of-focus blur as distance from the viewer increases.
Also, after applying the filter, the result needs to be merged in with the rest of the image.
All this and more are covered in Photoshop In A Day .

There are some extra blur filters in the menu, such as Average Blur, Smart Blur and Surface Blur.
Although not used to the same extent, they can be very useful and are also fully covered.

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Gaussian Blur
Motion Blur