Digital swirling

2016 already. I wish you all health, peace, happiness, and inspiration in whatever path you follow in 2016.
 Today a little fun to experiment with over the summer (or winter) holidays.

In 2009 I completed an on-line digital photography course with University of WA extension Ed2Go. 

I don't usually play around too much with Photoshop on my images other than a bit of cropping, or cloning out imperfections (though I must say I am doing a bit more now than in 2009...), but the teacher shared this really neat tool which changes your images into what I can see as gorgeous swirling glass balls.

You can see here my original photo, the Australian Native Cornflower, Brunonia australis, and the swirled image below. Stunning isn't it? 

 







The Native Cornflower is one of my favourite wildflowers. It is widespread over Australia. Here is a link - Atlas of Living Australia - Brunonia australis
Here is a pic of it in the wild, taken at Jibberding Reserve along the Great Northern Highway north of Wubin in Western Australia.
  

 

Here's how to do this effect using Photoshop Elements.

"Open" your image,
"Crop" the image to square,
Go to "Filter",
"Distort",
"Polar Coordinates" and then click the button "Polar to Rectangular",
Click "Okay",
Go to "Image",
"Rotate",
"180",
Click on "Filter",
"Distort" ,
"Polar Coordinates" and click the button "Rectangular to Polar",
then "Okay",
and you're done. 

This technique doesn't work well with all images (ie scenery), but it is a lot of fun. 

I find it works great with flowers and I love the effect with fireworks. It is a great technique if you are wanting to create unique square greeting cards.

If you would like to find out about on-line courses through the University of WA Extension, please click here - UWA Extension and Ed2Go.

 Have fun! 

Thank you everyone for your wonderful support in 2015 and taking the time to stop by, read and comment.  I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I look forward to catching up with you and will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.

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