Brashley Photography

The challenge this week set by Tina of Travels and Trifles Blog is called Something Different.  And one of the things I love doing is called twirling, so here is a selection of images that I have given the twirl effect to.

Update

Patti.. one of the hosts of Lens-Artist challenge has asked about the process of twirling.  So I am now adding the instruction below.

Here is the process for creating twirls… with many thanks to Julie Powell for instructions

1.) Open your image in Photoshop

2.) With your background layer selected > select Filter > Pixelate > Mezzotint. Set your mode to “Medium Lines.” OK.

3.) Next select to Filter > Blur > Radial Blur. Change settings to Amount 100, Blur Method zoom, Quality best. OK.

4.) Repeat step 3 as many times as you like. I ran mine about 3 times.

5.) Create a duplicate layer [CTRL/CMD J].

6.) With the background layer highlighted, Select > Filter > Distort > Twirl. On this layer, you want to use a positive number ie +200.

7.) Highlight Layer 1, select > Filter > Distort > Twirl. For this layer, we need a negative number ie: -150. OK

8.) We now need to blend these two layers together, select Layer 1, and change your blending mode, try darken and lighten, Exclusion and Difference, it really depends on your image and what effect you like. Try all the blend modes, some will work, some won’t.

9.) Now flatten or stamp your image (Ctrl, Shift, Alt, E) and transform it (flip horizontal or vertical) and use another blend mode, or even the same one, to create a really great piece of unique art.

I’ve also created a Photoshop Action… for you to download (note for step 7 make sure you are on the background layer – this action will only create the twirl effect to the background layer. To complete the creation of your artwork select the top layer and change the blending mode of that layer.)

Photoshop Action Download – Zipped Format.