Summary: Learn how to blend multiple motion blurs together to create an interesting painting/glow photo effect using Photoshop's Smart Filters!

Written by Steve Patterson
Exclusively for Photoshop Essentials.com.

Part of our complete collection of Photo Effects tutorials.

In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we're going to learn how to give a photo a "painterly glow" effect using several instances of the Motion Blur filter. I call it a "painterly glow" because the final result looks sort of like a combination of a painting and glow effect. This is a very easy effect to create, but to help make it even easier, we'll be using Smart Filters, first introduced in Photoshop CS3, which means you'll need Photoshop CS3 or higher to follow along. It is possible to create this same photo effect in Photoshop CS2 or earlier without using Smart Filters, but as with all of our Photoshop tutorials, the main purpose here is not to memorize steps but to learn how Photoshop really works, and this effect gives us a great opportunity to get some hands-on experience with one of the best new features Adobe has added to Photoshop in years.

Here's the image I'll be using for this tutorial:

Here's how it will look when we're done:

Not what you're looking for? Check out our other Photoshop Effects tutorials!

New! Download our Photoshop tutorials as convenient, print-ready PDFs!

Let's get started!

Step 1: Duplicate The Background Layer

The first step in creating our "painterly glow" effect is to duplicate the Background layer so that we'll still have access to the original, unedited image when we're done. To duplicate the Background layer, go up to the Layer menu at the top of the screen, choose New, and then choose Layer via Copy:

Or, for a much faster way to duplicate a layer, simply press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J (Win) / Command+J (Mac). Either way duplicates the Background layer, and if we look at our Layers palette, we can see that we now have two layers. The Background layer, which contains the original image, is sitting safely on the bottom, and a copy of the image, which Photoshop has automatically named "Layer 1", is sitting above it. We can see what's on the layer by looking at the preview thumbnail on the left of each layer. In this case, both layers are showing exactly the same image:

Step 2: Convert For Smart Filters

To use Smart Filters on a layer, we first need to convert the layer into a Smart Object. Smart Objects were first introduced in Photoshop CS2 and Smart Filters are essentially an extension of them. You can't work with Smart Filters without first converting a layer into a Smart Object, so to do that, with "Layer 1" selected in the Layers palette (selected layers are highlighted in blue), go up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen and choose Convert for Smart Filters:

Photoshop will pop up a warning box telling us what we already know, which is that we're converting the layer into a Smart Object:

Click OK to close the warning box. Nothing will appear to have happened to the image in the document window, but if we look again at the Layers palette, we can see that the preview thumbnail on "Layer 1" now shows a small icon in the bottom right corner. This icon tells us that the layer is now a Smart Object:

Step 3: Apply The Motion Blur Filter

Applying a Smart Filter to a Smart Object in Photoshop is no different from applying a normal filter to a normal layer, except that when you apply a filter to a Smart Object, Photoshop automatically converts the filter into a Smart Filter. To see what I mean, let's apply our first Motion Blur filter. With "Layer 1" still selected, go up to the Filter menu, choose Blur, and then choose Motion Blur:

This brings up the Motion Blur filter dialog box, which allows us to control both the angle and distance of the motion blur. For this first blur, I'm going to set the Angle to 90°, which gives me vertical blur streaks. Then, to adjust the distance of the blur, I'll click and drag the Distance slider at the bottom of the dialog box. Dragging the slider towards the right increases the length of the blur streaks, while dragging to the left decreases their length. There's no specific value to enter here since it will depend on your image and the intensity of the effect you want to achieve, so keep an eye on your image for a preview of the results as you drag the slider. I'm going to set my distance to a value of around 452 pixels, which gives me nice, long streaks. Since we're using Smart Filters, there's no need to worry about getting things right at this point since we can go back and change the filter settings as often as we like without harming the image in any way:

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box and apply the filter effect. My image now appears as a series of vertical color streaks:

Step 4: Change The Blend Mode To Hard Light

Currently, the blur streaks on "Layer 1" are completely blocking the original image on the Background layer from view. What we need is for the streaks to blend in with the original image. For that, all we need to do is change the layer's blend mode. You'll find the blend mode option in the top left corner of the Layers palette. By default, it's set to "Normal". Click either on the word "Normal" or on the arrows to the right of the word, which brings up a list of additional blend modes. Choose Hard Light from the list:

If you recall from our Five Essential Blend Modes For Photo Editing tutorial, the Hard Light blend mode is part of the Contrast group of blend modes, meaning that not only does it blend the layers together, it increases image contrast at the same time. It also happens to boost color saturation. Here's my image after changing the blend mode to Hard Light:

You can also try the Overlay blend mode for a slightly more subtle effect, but for the image I'm using here, Hard Light gives me better results.

So far, everything that we've done with our Smart Filter seems no different from a normal filter, but here's the big difference. With normal filters, once we've applied them to a layer, we've made physical and permanent changes to the pixels on that layer. There's no way to edit the filter settings once the filter has been applied, other than undoing your steps and re-applying the filter again. With Smart Filters, that's not the case. We can easily go back and make changes to the filter settings any time we want, as often as we want! If we look below "Layer 1" in the Layers palette, we can see the Motion Blur Smart Filter that we just applied. To bring its dialog box back up at any time, simply double-click on the filter's name:

The dialog box will instantly pop open, allowing you to make any changes you like to the settings. Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box and apply the new settings to the layer. With Smart Filters, we're free to experiment with different filters and settings without worrying that anything we're doing is permanent. Even when we're done creating our effect here, you can always go back and try different Angle and Distance settings for the Motion Blurs to compare different results!

We'll apply additional motion blur streaks to the image next!

Need printable versions of our Photoshop tutorials? Download them as print-ready PDFs!

Go to page: 1 | 2 | 3