A friend of mine asked me, how do you create the radial / zoom in effect on a particular subject. I am guessing a lot of Photoshop user have a similar question (I asked myself the same thing too previously), hence this would make a good topic in my blog for photography. I am not sure what the industry calls it but I name it the star-burst effect. This effect gives the image a sense of motion, making it feels like it is moving and ‘alive’ rather than a static image. The subject or the eye (if it’s a human) needs to be sharp though, an un-sharp subject steals the thunder away, making it dull and lifeless. Get the oxymoron here?

Let’s start off with this extremely easy step by step guide on how to create motion blur. Try this over the weekend with various types of images.

1. You need Adobe Photoshop, without that … please read my other blogs ~ kidding!. Alrighty, pick an image, try one that has a human as the subject. Can’t find one? Download the image used in this tutorial.

Right click on the picture and select save as.

2. In Photoshop, click on Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. Well you can use Gaussian Blur or Motion Blur but in this case I am using Radial Blur.

3. Try not to overdo it, the key here is to create a smooth and realistic effect on your picture. However, you can still test it out to see how wacky it can get! You may get a creative composition depending on your subject. I use 3 in this case.

4. Under Blur Center, try to put the ‘center’ on the subject or the eye area.

5. Once that is done, you will notice that the whole picture is in a radial blur motion. Even the eyes are blurred. We are not done yet!

6. Next in the Layer’s channel, duplicate the background copy.

7. In the duplicated copy click on layer mask. Layer mask is the third icon from left in the action icon list below (that is what I call it, not officially)

8. With the layer mask selected, click on gradient paint tool.

9. Please make sure that the foreground color is black.

10. Once the gradient tool is selected. Select the center gradient icon (second icon from left) at the task bar area (located on the top edge of your screen).

11. Click and drag your cursor across the face of the subject, you can try both ways either diagonally or horizontally.

12. You will notice in your mask layer, there is a black dot in it. The area that is painted black is the section that you created sort of a gradient transparent section to the layer image below (the background layer).

13. Once all of that is done, voila … your radial blur effect on the photo is completed.

Click for a bigger view

Did this technique helped you? Do let me know!