Zoom blur that makes you dizzy

[Cemil97]

A couple of the comments posted to my picture for this week’s assignment asked me how I created the picture, so here it goes:

Before (straight from the RAW file):


After:


When this week’s assignment of converging lines came up I came to think of a footpath that I know of, that is framed by some old twisted trees. I thought that if I zoomed in to compress the perspective, I could exaggerate the sense of converging lines. However I wanted to also create some sense of motion or story in the picture so I came to think of a picture I once saw, where the photographer had apparently zoomed out during the exposure. The picture always made me a bit dizzy.

So I made a number of shots with a 1/20 exposure time where I zoomed out from 105mm to about 80mm during the exposure. The result was not exactly what I expected, because the 'quiet' part was (obviously) dead center in the frame but I wanted it to be 2/3 down the frame where tree and footpath lines converged.

Fortunately I also took a couple of shots without doing the exposure zoom and Photoshop Elements came to my rescue with its "Filter > Blur > Radial Blur" function. I set the "Blur Method" to "Zoom", the "Amount" set to "12" and moved the blur center 2/3 down the picture.

Before I applied the blur filter, I enhanced the color in the picture by duplicating the background layer, setting the layer mode for the new layer to "Multiply" and lowering the opacity to about 40%. I then merged the two layers and applied the blur filter.

Finally I cropped the picture a bit to comply with the rule of thirds, and made an ellipse vignette on a separate layer with a blending mode of 'Overlay' and opacity 54% so the edges darken a bit.

[redthedunns]

Wow that definitely has movement and made me dizzy. My eyes were bouncing from side to side. Great effect! Thanks for sharing.

[Nina]

Wow that's very cool !! What you did worked really well ... looking at it gives me motion sickness lol .

[wulf]

That works very well and definitely enhances the resulting image. You could have got a similar effect by zooming while the image was taking (try it sometime - it is a lot of fun and gives plenty of scope for "happy accidents") but doing it back in the digital darkroom gives you much more control.

Of course, less obvious things like the colour enhancement and cropping also contribute to the success of the final result.

Wulf

[ditch_azeroth]

didn't i see that picture in assignment: converging lines? lol ^o^ anyway, nice pp. it definitely works with the shot.

[dlaf]

Thanks, cemil, for posting your process! I looks like fun to play around with and I will try it this afternoon if the weather permits. Still can't believe how much it messes with my eyes!

[Father Bob]

I really like how your shot turned out. I found a similar shot in my archive (a fancy word for 1000's of unorganized photos) and had to give it a try. Very quick and, with your instructions) very easy.
Thanks, I'll be using this again.

[R lake]

That is soooooooooo cooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[herrickphoto]

Brilliant! I feel quite woozy

[m_mphotography]

VERY COOL!! Will have to keep this effect in mind....