Jazz Up Your Photos

Adding a little zoom-blur makes any photo more exciting.

Dave Johnson

Feature: Jazz Up Your Photos With Zoom-Blur

On a recent photo assignment to shoot a boxer working out in a gym, I tried emphasizing the raw energy of the moment by using long exposures and making intentionally blurry photographs. I got some good results, but I knew that I could do better by using a little digital trickery once I got my memory card home. Specifically, I had zoom-blur in mind.

The Old-Fashioned Way

Film photographers have used zoom-blur for decades. They simply slide or twist their zoom lens at the moment of exposure, blurring the image because the focal length of the lens is changing radically during the exposure. It takes some practice and, truth be told, it is something of a hit-or-miss affair. It's genuinely difficult to keep the camera steady while you're throttling the zoom, and it's also challenging to keep the subject in sharp focus when the rest of the image is blurred. Nonetheless, I shot an artistic image of a bagpiper several years ago with a very early Kodak digital SLR by zooming from 28mm to 80mm.

We can get much the same effect with a program like Adobe Photoshop Elements 2, only in a more controlled way. In my bagpiper photo, the subject itself is blurred; but we can use Photoshop to isolate and even accentuate the subject instead. (Jasc Paint Shop Pro isn't an option for us this week because the program lacks the appropriate blur tool.)

Blurring With Digital Zoom

Let's suppose we have a picture of a boxer working out. The boxer is working hard, but you just don't see it. The picture is too static; a little zoom-blur might be just the trick. It'll have an effect similar to motion blur, making the subject pop out of the background. Ready to try?

Start by loading the image into Photoshop Elements 2. Then find your favorite selection tool. We need to select the boxer's body and the punching bag. For a job like this, I prefer one of the Lasso tools (the second icon down on the left in the Tool Palette). For this image, I made sure the Lasso was set on the tool I wanted by right-clicking on the icon and selecting Magnetic Lasso. You have three tools to choose from: the Lasso Tool, the Polygonal Lasso, and the Magnetic Lasso.

The Magnetic Lasso smartly latches onto the edges of your subject as you guide the tool around the image, making the job of choosing your selection much easier. Move the mouse slowly enough that you can make sure the lasso doesn't start moving far away from the edge of your subject; if it does, just back up a little and click to set a control point. But keep in mind that your selection doesn't have to be perfect: As long as the lasso creates a rough selection of the subject, you're fine. When you've gone all the way around and selected the boxer and the bag, double click to "seal" the selection.

Now let's add a little feathering to extend the boundary of the selection a bit and smooth out our efforts. Choose Select from the menu, then choose the Feather option. Set the value to 10 pixels and click OK.

We're almost ready to add the zoom-blur. If we did it now, though, the blur would affect the boxer and not the background. We want exactly the opposite, so choose Select, Inverse. You should see the selection change: Now the background is selected, not the boxer.

Finally, let's add the blur. Choose Filter, Blur, Radial Blur. In the Radial Blur dialog box, change the mode from Spin to Zoom and set the quality to Good. You can experiment with the blur amount by moving the slider to the left or right, but the default is probably fine for starters. Click OK and wait for the filter to be applied.

If you like the effect, just save the picture--you're done. (I think my boxer came out well.) You can experiment with different amounts of blur if you prefer. And for the ultimate in blur control, you might want to try a variation on this approach: If you start the project by duplicating the image into a second layer and then do all of this fancy editing to the top layer, you can vary the top layer's opacity to vary the effect quickly and easily. As you reduce the opacity of the top image, the unedited bottom layer has more of an effect on the overall look of the picture. But that's a topic for another week!

Dave's Favorites: Keyhole Provides Window Onto the World

Named after a family of secret photo-intelligence satellites purportedly operated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Keyhole is a compelling Web-based program that puts on your desktop a 3D globe that's full of high-resolution imagery.

When you start Keyhole, it displays a spinning globe on your Windows desktop. Select a city, house address, or point of interest, and you immediately swoop in and zoom down from outer space, through cloud cover, and right to street level. From there, you can zoom, pan, and tilt the display for a better view.

In reality, street-level, 1- or 2-meter-resolution photography isn't available for the entire globe. But enough cities do have super-high-resolution images that the illusion isn't broken; I've panned around New York City, Niagara Falls, and even my own town of Colorado Springs. (I can easily see my own mailbox and the sandy play area in my backyard.)

There are many versions of Keyhole for all thicknesses of wallets. Keyhole LT is the consumer version and costs about $50 for a one-year subscription. At the other extreme, Keyhole Pro costs $600 per year. But even if you don't plan to buy, there's no reason not to download the free seven-day trial. It's just like stepping into a science fiction novel.

Q&A: Understanding Digital Camera Zoom Ratings

I've been taking photos since the days of Brownie box cameras and am now considering buying a digital camera. I am curious, though, about the relationship between the zoom on a film camera and the optical and digital zoom lens on a digital camera. Suppose I am presently using a 38mm to 160mm zoom. How does that compare to a 3X optical rating on a digital camera?

--Ed Van Over, Medina, Ohio

You can answer your question by reading the specs for the camera you're interested in, Ed. Obviously, a rating like "3X" simply identifies the magnification of the zoom. To get the actual focal length, you need to know a little more. Consider the Olympus C-5060 digital camera. At the Olympus Web site, I learned that the camera has a 4X digital zoom with a range of 27mm to 110mm equivalent in 35mm photography. At Nikon's Web site, I found that the zoom range for the CoolPix 5400 is also 4X, but it instead goes from 28mm to 116mm. Minolta's site says that its Dimage Z1 has a massive 10X zoom that has an equivalent range of 38mm to 380mm. Wow!

While we're on the subject, let me address the "35mm equivalent" issue. Since a digital camera's electronic sensor is a different size than 35mm film, the real focal length is different as well. But knowing that a particular digital camera has a focal length of 5.8mm to 24mm doesn't do anyone any good; we don't really know what that means. That's why all camera makers convert those numbers into their 35mm equivalent values, so you can compare the focal length of a camera to numbers that most people already understand. Simply stated, anything less than 35mm is considered wide angle, 50mm is "normal," and anything over 100mm is telephoto.

Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.

Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering, please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.

This week's Hot Pic: "The Wall That Heals," by Jon Braude, Cincinnati

This week's photo comes from Jon Braude, who captured this reflective moment in front of a special traveling Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Cincinnati. This technique is often used to take photos of the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., since it lends itself to making such powerfully moving photographs. Jon reports that he used a Fuji S602 to take this picture.

We want your feedback! Send your comments, questions, and suggestions about the newsletter itself to comments@bydavejohnson.com. If you have a question that you'd like to see answered in the weekly Q&A, send it to question@bydavejohnson.com.

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