Creating a Radial Blur--scroll down for details

[Brian Wong]

EOS 40D, 500/4
1/2000, f/8, ISO 800, handheld on James' boat, manual exposure

You can poke an eye out!

Photographed March while on Jim Neiger's and James Shadle's BAA approved "Best of Florida" workshop.

I am pleased about the head angle of both birds, but do call the police to break up the disturbance! Enhanced the busy background ... trying to emphasize the frenetic fight action between the two birds.

Thank you for looking, and your suggestions are appreciated.

[Fabs Forns]

Hmmm, I thought you da done a zoom blur :)
Aren't they gorgeous?

Wish the face in the shadow was a little lighter, maybe quick mask it and lift the EXP?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Looking at this image makes me almost dizzy. :) Great interaction between the birds, the blurred surrounding is a bit too strong for my taste.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Brian, How did you do the zoom blur on the BKGR after the fact??? The bills are over-saturated a bit or maybe more than that. Love the careful framing and of course the action.

[Brian Wong]

Hi Brian, How did you do the zoom blur on the BKGR after the fact??? The bills are over-saturated a bit or maybe more than that. Love the careful framing and of course the action.

:)Hi Fabs!

The back face (pretty dark shadow in original) started to fall apart, and so I stopped here. I do think I can get a little bit more out of it though. Thank you for the suggestions:).


:)Hi Axel!

I do agree ... sorry it is so dizzy!:eek::eek: In the original, the birds and the background were basically all in focus, and all merged together. I wanted to figure out some way to separate them, and came up with this idea (being inspired by the in-camera zoom blur images I saw presented here). I overcompensated and overcooked it ... probably because the original looked so dull & flat. I can easily back it down (it is on a layer).


:)Hi Artie!

Thank you, and I am glad you are intrigued by this after-the-fact zoom blur on the background. In Photoshop:

1) I first cleaned up the background of all distracting bright objects. The objective was to make the background as uniform as possible before applying the enhancement (white streaks became even more distracting).
2) Then create a background copy layer.
3) Working just on the background copy layer, I selected Radial Blur. It is tricky, as you have to do some trial and error on the placement (the default is in the center of the image). Since the bird action I wanted to emphasize was approximately in the upper left ROT ... I did a few trials to place the center of the radial blur at that location. I then adjusted the amount of blur to taste, and applied & save it to that background copy layer.
4) Then add a "layer mask" (the rectangle with the white circle) to that background copy layer.
5) Select Brush, and using a soft wide brush ... start painting with the black brush/ white brush to slowly bring the birds back (from the original underlaying layer) into sharp focus. I feathered it out radially from the birds to simulate a camera zoom blur.

I did a very similar and very mild motion blur to the background of the Cougar here:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14079

Hope that was helpful!:) and thanks for all the tips and encouragement!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Brian! I am copying this thread to Educational Resources and re-naming it "Radial Blurs." How great that everyone gets to learn here.