In Elements 12 or later, click the Guided button at the top of the Elements window. To make your subjects rocket off a surface, use the Motion Blur filter.Īnother useful filter for motion is the Radial Blur filter, which you can use to create a slick zoom effect. Your whole image will be blurry but don’t panic, we’ll fix that in a minute. To adjust the strength of the blur, drag the Distance slider right for more blurring or left for less (a setting of 100 was used here). For example, to create a perfectly vertical blur set the angle to 90 degrees. In the resulting dialog box, adjust the Angle setting to make the blur go in the direction you want. In either Photoshop or Elements, choose Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. If your document consists of multiple layers, create a “stamped copy” for blurring as described in the previous paragraph. If your document consists of a single layer, click to activate it and then duplicate it by pressing Command-J.
In Elements, click the Expert button at the top of the workspace (called Full Edit in vintage versions). Make your changes, press Command-S to save, close the document, and your changes appear in the original document. To edit your original layer(s), double-click the Smart Object’s thumbnail and they open in a temporary document. The original layers (left) are sandwiched into a single smart object (right). In your Layers panel, double-click the new layer’s name and enter “blur.” When you do, Photoshop creates a new layer at the top of your layer stack that contains the content of all visible layers. That way, the filter is applied to the wrapper instead of to its contents.Īlternatively, create a stamped copy for blurring by activating the topmost layer and pressing Shift-Option-Command-E. If your document consists of multiple layers (say, you used another layer for color correction), activate them and, in Photoshop CS3 or later, choose Filter > “Convert for Smart Filters.” This tells Photoshop to create a Smart Object from the active layers, which you can think of as a protective wrapper. In Photoshop, open an image and activate the pertinent layer(s). Read on to kick your subject into high gear! Happily, Photoshop and Photoshop Elements make the process a piece of cake (you can do it in Pixelmator, too). In fact, this technique is a great way to turn a snapshot into something more artistic. Even though your subject is stationary in the picture, the viewer’s brain will experience the movement, which adds an element of excitement. To add extra visual interest to a photo, try using a blur filter to simulate motion.