Image Editing Tutorial – Radial Blur

Once you've got the blur effect, you can cancel the selection. In Photoshop Elements this is done by choosing Deselect in the Select menu, or by the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+D. In GIMP you either choose None from the Select menu or used the shortcut Shift+Ctrl+A. GIMP's inward-pointing blur can produce some odd effects around the edge of the image, but with a quick crop these are easy to tidy up, resulting in an image that looks like this:

The outward-pointing blur in Photoshop Elements avoids the edge effects, but does blur the edges of the subject outwards underneath the mask. Depending on the subject and the background however this can look very effective.

This is a technique that is quick to apply and produces good results with the right type of image. Here's another example, which is a purely gratuitous shot of me driving a race-prepared 911 GT2 at brown-trouser speed down the Brabham Straight at Brands Hatch, because how often am I going to get an excuse to brag about that?


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