Because of this week's 2.0 Advanced Comp theme, I've decided to write you all up a tutorial on how to do those tricky-to-do yet awesome looking zoom blur pics. Enjoy the tutorial
BTW, this tutorial is designed for Paint Shop Pro 9, but can be adapted to suit Photoshop without too much fuss I should think.
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Zoom Blur Tutorial
1. Find a suitable picture. This technique can be applied to a huge range of different angles, styles and often produces a stunning motion blurred background which looks great. For the purposes of this tutorial I'll be using this nice picture of an Alfa Romeo GT.
2. Using the selection tool, make a selection around the outside of the car, as shown.
3. Promote the selection to a layer, ie the car on a layer by itself. Then invert the selection (remember to select the background layer again) and promote the scenery onto a layer by itself.
4. Your layer pallete should look something like this right now.
5. Now this next step depends on the picture. The vanishing point is the place on the picture where all the perspective lines go into. If you can see the vanishing point on the picture already, then this is unnecessary. However, if the lines all point to a spot which is off the pic, then you need to enlarge the canvas so you can blur to that spot. It is a rough estimate as to how much to enlarge the canvas by, usually a few hundred extra pixels is more than enough.
6. Take the pen tool. Using a bright colour (such as red), draw (on a new vector layer of course) a straight line down the perspective lines. Repeat on a different line, and once more for good measure. Where the lines meet is the vanishing point!
7. Go to Adjust > Blur > Radial Blur. Make sure it is set to 'Zoom'. Now, position the cross over the vanishing point. Zoom in if need be to get it perfect. Paint Shop Pro remembers the point where you last blurred, so click OK, then hide the lines layer.
8. On the scenery layer, select Radial blur from the Adjust menu again. The cross should be in exactly the same spot as before. Play around with different strenths of blur and different levels of "Protect Centre" until you get the desired effect. Click OK.
9. Go to your layers pallete. Duplicate the blurred layer. This is to eliminate the unblurred area around the edge of the car. Duplicate it 3 or 4 times, and then merge them all into one 'blur' layer.
10. And you're done! Looks good, doesn't it? Time for finishing touches...
The wheels are clearly stationary, so thats the first thing on the list. You can either radial blur them which produces a very clean finish, or you can use the copy-paste wheel technique, which requires another 2 photos to be taken at the same time. So if you're working with just 1 pic, the radial blur is your best bet.
11. The finished product! Finishing touches include a radial blur for the wheels, general cleanup, a touch more contrast, a border and the all important sig.
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I hope that this tutorial has been helpful to you, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to either ask here or drop me a PM!