Use Adobe Photoshop to create a motion blur effect.

Motion blur—the apparent streaking of moving objects caused by rapid movement or long exposure times—can add dynamic excitement photos. Follow Adobe art director Kathleen Martin’s process as she uses Adobe Photoshop to create a motion blur effect.

Explore Photoshop

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Kathleen Martin is a starry-eyed illustrator and designer working in the Adobe Studio. Ever the creative explorer, she scouts the digital landscape with an evolving toolkit of handy workflows. You can also find Kathleen as a host of Adobe Live on Behance.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Before you start creating a motion blur effect

Create a motion blur effect in four easy steps.

Follow renown art director Kathleen Martin as she demonstrates how to create exciting motion blur effects using Adobe Photoshop. Learn how to prep your images by working with Smart Objects, then get your subject moving with filters and the Pen tool. Work with Sliders to speed up or down the movement and explore the Layers panel Smart Filters mask to specify what you do (and do not) want in focus. Practice with your own images in the tutorial below.

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Take a quick one-minute look at Martin’s movement technique follow the steps below.

Before you start creating a motion blur effect.

Use this a if you’d like, or practice with your own.

Step 1: Prep images

Start by opening the dancer photo in Photoshop and click on the Lock icon on the layer to unlock it. Martin then chose Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object to protect the dancer photo.

Unlock dancer layer and convert to Smart Object in Adobe Photoshop.

Step 2: Get moving

Martin applied a blur to the entire image by choosing Filter > Blur Gallery > Path Blur. To create the appearance of movement on specific parts of the model, Martin updated the default marker that Photoshop added by dragging the arrow to control the direction of movement. She dragged the points to refine the movement; then she added more markers by clicking on the image with the Pen tool.

Apply Path Blur from Blur Gallery to the model’s head and feet to give appearance of movement .

Step 3: Speed up

Use the Speed slider to adjust the appearance of movement and click OK.

Adjust the speed slider for the Path Blur.

Step 4: Stay focused

Martin wanted some parts of the model to be more in focus. She clicked on the Smart Filters mask thumbnail in the Layers panel to specify which parts of the model would be in focus. Then she chose the Brush tool, adjusted the brush size, and brushed over the areas that should not be blurred.

Paint with Brush tool on Smart Filters on the dancer to bring parts of the model into focus.