This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. I'm going to show you how to create a powerful, radial
dispersion effect. Open a photo you'd like to use for this project. I downloaded this one from
Shutterstock. I provided three custom brushes that you can download. Their links are in my video's
description or project files. They include a set of explosion brushes, a set of powder brushes,
and a set of broken glass brushes. Before we begin, if you want to know as soon as I upload
new Photoshop tutorials, smash that "Subscribe" button and please remember to click "Like" if you
like this video. The first step is to separate our subject from its background. There are many
ways to do it and your choice should depend on the characteristics of your photo, as well as
the version of Photoshop you're using. For CC 2020 or later, click the lock icon to unlock your photo
and go to your Properties panel. If you don't see it, go to Window and Properties.
Scroll down and click "Remove Background". Photoshop automatically analyzes the photo and
creates a layer mask of the subject's shape, thereby masking out the background. Ctrl or
Cmd-click the layer mask to make a selection of its shape. Then, press Ctrl or Cmd + J.
For CC 2018 or 2019, open your Quick Selection Tool and click the "Select Subject" button,
which creates a selection around the subject. Then, press Ctrl or Cmd + J. On earlier versions,
drag the Quick Selection Tool over your subject. To remove areas of the selection, press and hold
Alt or Option as you drag over those areas. Then cut and copy the image inside the selection.
Whatever version you re using, make a copy of the cut-out subject, hide the copy,
and make the original active. We'll create a new layer under it by Ctrl or Cmd-clicking the
New layer icon. We'll fill the empty layer with black, but before we do, check your foreground and
background colors. If they're not black and white respectively, press "D" on your keyboard. Since
the foreground color is black, press Alt or Option + Delete. Make Layer 1 active and go to Filter,
Blur and Radial Blur. Make the Amount 100, the Blur Method: Zoom and the Quality: Best.
Repeat the filter numerous times by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F on Windows or Cmd + Ctrl + F on a Mac
9 or 10 times. Make 10 copies of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J ten times.
We'll merge them together by scrolling down and Shift-clicking the bottom one to make all
of them active and pressing Ctrl or Cmd + E. Make 5 copies of it, merge the copies together
and repeat the Radial Blur filter 10 times.
We're going to brighten the radial blur layer. To do this, click the Adjustment Layer icon and click
Levels. Before we make adjustments, it's important to know that Adjustment Layers affect
all the layers below them in the Layers panel. If we want to restrict it to just the one layer
below it as in this case, we'll need to make the Adjustment Layer into a clipping mask. To do this,
simply click the Clipping Mask icon. You could also go to Layer and "Create Clipping Mask".
For the Input Black level, type in 20, for the Input Midtones, type in 1.2, and for the Input
White level, type in 120. Shift-click the radial blur layer to make it active, as well, and press
Ctrl or Cmd + E to merge it with the adjustment layer. Change its Blend Mode to "Hard Light".
Name it Hard Light . Make a copy of it by pressing Ctrl or Cmd + J. Drag it below the original Hard
Light layer and change its Blend Mode to Overlay. Name it, Overlay . Make a new layer under it
and name it, "Smoke". Invert the foreground and background colors by pressing "x"
on your keyboard. White should be your foreground color. Open your Brush Tool and Brush Picker.
Open the Powder brush set I provided. I'll choose "Powder 15",
but feel free to try each one to see which one you like. Its Opacity and Flow are both 100%.
Click once on your document. Make your subject visible and active.
Click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to the subject. Open back the Brush Picker.
Close the Powder brushes and open the Explosion brushes.
I'll pick "011", but again, feel free to try them out and pick the one you like.
For its size, I'll type in 2400 pixels and press Enter or Return. Open your Brush Settings by
pressing the F5 key at the top of your keyboard. You could also go to Window and "Brush Settings".
Click "Shape Dynamics" and make the "Angle Jitter" approximately 20%. Then, close the window.
Click over a few spots on your image and go back to the Brush Picker. This time, pick Explosion 9
and make its size 430 pixels. Open your Brush Settings again and click "Brush Tip Shape".
Drag the "Spacing" all the way to the left. Click "Shape Dynamics" and make the "Angle Jitter" 25%.
Brush over the edge of your subject to reveal the radial blur layer under it. To reveal back
areas of your subject, press "x" on your keyboard to invert your foreground and background colors.
Also, feel free to enlarge your brush by pressing the right bracket key a few times.
Continue to mask out and reveal back your subject until you like how it looks. Make the Overlay
layer active and click the Layer Mask icon to make a layer mask next to it. Open the Brush Picker
and close the Explosion Brushes. Scroll down and open the Broken Glass brush set I provided.
Pick a brush and click once on the right and left halves. We'll reduce the layer mask's density
by opening the Properties panel. If you don't see it, go to Window and Properties. Reduce the
Density to 40%. Make a copy of the layer. We'll flip the copy upside down by going to Edit,
Transform and "Rotate 180 degrees". Make the Hard Light layer active
and reduce its opacity to 30%. This is Marty from Blue Lightning TV. Thanks for watching!