A frozen capture of a moving subject can be very dramatic if it shows absolute peak action.  A fast shutter speed is used and as a result, everything in the depth of field range is recorded sharply.  But sometimes implied motion that shows fluidity can be more dramatic. The way this is most often done is by panning the camera.  If you’re like me, you have lots of images of moving subjects where everything is tack sharp. It’s not practical to recapture all these photos in the field using the panning method, but all is not lost in that through a bit of Photoshop trickery, the effect can be imparted to many of those images in your files. The solution is found using the Motion Blur filter.

Step #1:  Make a careful and precise selection of your subject.  There are many ways Photoshop users accomplish this. If you’re new to the process, click on the Quick Selection tool in the tool bar. It’s housed with the Magic Wand tool. The keyboard shortcut is W. Drag the tool across the subject to create the selection. If Photoshop selects extra pixels, hold the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on a PC so the cursor shows a small MINUS sign and remove the unwanted selection.

If the Quick Selection tool is having trouble finding the exact selection, adjust its size to make it more precise. If that doesn’t work, resort to the Lasso tool to fine tune tough edges. 

Step #2:   When you feel you have a good selection, go to the Refine Edge radial button in the Options Bar. Move the Smooth and Feather sliders until you see the edges take on a nice rounded look. The amount will be determined by the size of the file.

This is the image with the chosen selection and the edges refined:

Step #3:  Once you have the selection looking the way you want, make a copy of it: Command C on a Mac or Control C on a PC.   

With the copy on the clipboard, now do a Command V on a Mac or a Control V on a PC to paste the copy onto a new layer. The marching ants will disappear and the copy will appear as a brand new layer in the layers palette. 

Step #4:  Access the Move tool to drag the copy of the main subject off to the side of the image.

Step #5:  Go back to the layers palette and click on the background layer. Use the clone stamp tool to clone the original main subject out of the image. You can try using Content Aware Fill if you’re feeling lucky. I find that the clone stamp tool is more precise. It doesn’t have to be perfect in that you’re going to move the copied primary subject back to its original location in just a bit. Be sure you’re cloning to the background layer and not the layer you just pasted.

Step #6: With the background layer still active, go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and move the radius slider to create the panned background effect. The amount will be determined by the size of the file.

Step #7: Go back to the layers palette and click on the Move tool.  Highlight Layer 1 and reposition the subject accordingly. 

Step #8: Often this is enough but sometimes parts of the main subject need a bit of applied motion to make the effect believable.  If this is the case, as in the image in this tutorial, do the following:

Duplicate the layer of the main subject by dragging it to the Create a New Layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. It’s the icon that looks like a square piece of paper with a folded corner.  A new layer will appear at the top of the palette.

Step #9: Go back to FiIter>Blur>Motion Blur and add enough of an effect to Layer 1 copy so the areas that are in question now show motion.

Step #10: Add a layer mask to that layer by clicking on the Add a Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette. It looks like a square with a circle in the center. 

Step 11: Access the brush tool and make sure the foreground color is set to black. Paint over the area where you want to restore the sharpness and leave the added motion in the parts that needed to be tweaked.

Check TGP at the beginning of every month for a new Photoshop Tip Of The Month. Visit www.russburdenphotography.com for information about his Nature Photo Tours across the US.