Adding action to your shots

I have been applying an effect to my pictures lately where I apply a radial blur to the background to help identify the main subject and to add some action to an otherwise static image, and I've been hearing some very positive feedback as well as questions on how to apply the effect so I decided to do a mini-tutorial on how to do it.


I've read about this effect in a magazine I bought about Photoshop Elements 9 way back when it first came out and I tried it out but never really used it until recently. The main idea is to use 2 layers and a layer mask to apply the blur effect in the background layer and use the layer mask to expose your main subject like this:

The beauty of this effect is that I think is simple enough to apply (as long as you have a software that handles layers and layer masks) and the same basic principle can be used to do other effects that require isolating part of the image (like selective colorization or replacing the background entirely).

Before starting, I just want to mention there are LOTS of ways to achieve this same effect but I just plan on describing the method I've used on my pictures. Also, I've be using screenshots from Photoshop CS5 to illustrate my progress. Depending on the program and version you're using you might find the screens don't match but the procedure is the same.

So, step one would be to open your image with your favorite photo edition software (that handles layers; like Photoshop, PhotoshopElements 9 and above, GIMP, etc) and create a duplicate layer from your original image:

Once you have your layers duplicated, use the quick selection tool to select the subject you want to isolate. Try to get as much of your subject selected as possible, but don't worry too much if the selection goes over your background a little since we can fix that later on. 

After using the quick selection tool you should have something like this:

Now what you'd want to do is, select the layer you created the duplicate, and select the "create Layer mask" option, either on the Layer menu or using the highlighted icon:

Once you create the mask, your layers should look like this:

Now that we have the background layer and the mask applied to the copy layer, we're ready to add the blur effect; so select the background layer and then go to the Filters->Blur->Radial Blur option in the menu as displayed in the image:

You don't really need to use a Radial blur. Maybe a motion blur or a box blur might be more suited for your image, or you might want to try a spin-radial blur instead of a zoom-radial blur; it is really up to you. For this image I liked a zoom blur because I wanted to convey some movement towards me. Also, notice that you can move the central point of the blur around, it will cause the amount of blur to be heavier on one side of your image, for this image, I moved it slightly up and right, so that the strongest effect would be on the bottom left corner:

After applying the blur to the background you should get something like this:

So now the image is almost ready, is just a matter of looking at the smaller details. For instance, right next to the lion's mouth, the original mask selection had spilled over the kid wearing the superman t-shirt and now that is not part of the blur effect:

The easiest way to solve this, is to switch to the brush tool, set the opacity and flow to 100% and make sure the foreground color is set to black. Also, make sure you select the mask portion of the layer before proceeding:

Then, simply use the brush tool to paint the missing parts of your mask. If you notice any parts where you're actually hiding a part of your subject, just switch the foreground color to white and paint over it to expose the affected areas.

Now, before wrapping up and publishing your image, you might want to take a close look at the edges. Sometimes using the quick select tool can cause the edges to be to noticeable in your image. For instance the ears of this lion are standing out too much for my taste:

Depending on your image, you might like the effect of having sharp edges, but if you'd like to smooth them a little, I would suggest selecting the brush tool again, but this time I would use a lower opacity and flow (90% and 85% for instance)

Also, I would select a brush with a little more feather:

Then simply pass the brush around the edges to smooth them out until you're comfortable with them:

Finally, you can take advantage of the fact that the foreground and the background are on separate layers and adjust other settings if you'd like. For this image, I'm going to make the background layer a little brighter and I'm increasing the contrast to make my subject pop a little more:

But I could have as easily turned the background to Black and white:

From here on your only limit would be your imagination. You can get creative and try out different blur effects, or you could play around with the colors in the background and do some strange effects.

I hope this tutorial was useful and as I have time availability I can add more tricks and tips I pick up along. Also, if you have further doubts or questions (or would like to make a correction on something I did wrong) please add to the comments or send me a message through Facebook

Here is the before and after for this image, as well as for other images I've edited using this same technique: