You can give an attractive look to images with a Selection, a Radial Blur and a Layer Mask in Photoshop. Though the effect in this tutorial is for a particular image, it will produce equally interesting effects with other images by just following the steps. It can be done in any version of Photoshop, including Photoshop7.
This is the effect I will achieve.
Step 1 : I will be using this free stock image. You will find it here
It belongs to *auroradreams
Step 2 : Press CTRL+J to duplicate the Background Layer. A new Layer 1 forms.
Step 3 : Click the Lasso Tool.
Step 4 : Draw a selection inside the figure. You don't have to very accurate.
Step 5 : The selection changes to a selection of marching ants.
Step 6 : Go to Select>Modify>Feather.
Step 7 : I have set a Feather Radius of 50 pixels. If you use a high resolution image, you can use a greater Feather Radius.
Step 8 : Press CTRL+SHIFT+I to inverse the selection.
Step 9 : Go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur.
Step 10 : In the Radial Blur dialogue box set the Amount to 75, Blur Method to Zoom and Quality to Good. Click OK.
The Radial Blur is applied.
Step 11 : Press CTRL+D to deselect. The marching ants go away.
Step 12 : After deselecting press CTRL+F. This applies the Radial Blur again. The image looks like this.
Step 13 : Click the Add Layer Mask icon. A Layer Mask forms next to the layer thumbnail on Layer1.
Step 14 : Make sure that Foreground Color is set to the default Black and Background to White. If it is not press x and d on the keyboard to restore the default.
Step 15 : Click the Brush Tool.
Step 16 : Click in the top panel to reveal the Brush controls. Set the Hardness to 0. To increase the Brush size press ] (right square bracket) and to decrease it press [ (left bracket key).
Step 17 : You can see that I am not using a very big Brush. Click with it on parts you wish to reveal.
Step 18 : Click on parts of the image you want to reveal. That is all. You can use this technique on different images. Other photoshop tutorials are here
