HOW TO GET THE ADAMSKI EFFECT IN PHOTOSHOP (STEP BY STEP)

Adamski effect? And why, what is it? You may wonder. Well, a few weeks ago we started our gait in the new weekly challenge format that we nicknamed fotoreto . I don't know if you will remember that the first one was about the subject: black and white photography, this theme that we both like (and) like. It turns out that the winning photograph turned out to be a wonderful image with a beautiful impressionistic effect . This effect is called Adamski Effect , and as we know it caused you a lot of interest, we wanted you to have the tools to do it step by step.

WHAT IS THE ADAMSKI EFFECT?

The Adamski effect owes its name to its creator, Josh Adamski (Tel Aviv 1948), a photographer who defines his work as a photo impressionism himself. Through blur techniques and creating the illusion of movement, his images adopt an abstract tone, often dreamlike and pictorial. His style has become popular and it is increasingly common to find images imitating his technique. I recommend you take a look at the gallery that appears in this link for more inspiration.

THE CHOICE OF THE IMAGE

The first step begins long before opening Photoshop on our computer. The first thing is to choose the image on which we want to work. This step is essential . I would even tell you that for the next few times, it is not only essential to choose the image, but to create it thinking about applying the effect later. This is how you will really get the best results. Here are some ideas that work very well with the Adamski effect, then you will see why:

Tree trunks or elongated repetitive patterns (buildings, street lamps, trees, etc.)
Images with very marked vanishing point
The sea and the movement of the waves
A sky with clouds
A human element in photography
Open frames

HOW TO CREATE THE ADAMSKI EFFECT IN PHOTOSHOP

The truth is that doing so is very simple and can be a very useful tool to give a creative touch to your images. I recommend that you apply it once the image editing is finished.

FOR IMAGES WITH VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL ELEMENTS

Let's see it step by step for images with vertical and horizontal elements such as a landscape with trees, for example. The first thing is to choose a suitable image to apply the effect, open it in Adobe Photoshop, and triple the layer. To do this you just have to place yourself on top of the bottom layer, and with the keyboard shortcut, dial "Control J" twice. Once you have three layers, you must give each one a name. One will be "vertical", the other "horizontal" and the other "background" (it will be the original photograph).

Add layers

Then, with the «vertical» layer selected, we will go to the menu bar located at the top, we will look for «Filter» -> »Blur» -> »Motion blur».

Filter menu

We will see that a dialog box opens that offers us the possibility of modifying the values of:

Angle
Distance in pixels

The angle is simply to indicate at which angle we want our motion blur to be applied. As we are in the «vertical» layer, this time we will select an angle of 90º. The distance in pixels is the intensity of the effect. You can see the results at the same time that you move the cursor and adjust it to your liking, but the value will be high, around 500-1000 pixels or so, and we give it to "ok".

Motion blur filter

Then we go to the «horizontal» layer, and repeat the adjustments, looking to leave the angle this time at 0º. Once done for the two adjustment layers, what we are going to do is erase the effect in some areas of the image, because we do not want, for example, that the vertical areas of our image have a horizontal blur, but we want to enhance its verticality The same for horizontal areas, what we want is a horizontal blur. To do this, what we will do is add a layer mask to our "vertical" layer.

Add layer mask

Next, we select the brush tool , in black color and an opacity of approximately 30%. What we are going to do is erase with the brush , the vertical filter in the areas where the horizontal should appear. And you would already have it. Now, what if you want to erase the effect at a specific point in the image both vertically and horizontally? Then you should go on

CLEAR THE ADAMSKI EFFECT SELECTIVELY ON IMAGES WITH VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL ELEMENTS

As I have already mentioned, in some images this could end in the previous point. But in my image, for example, I have a human element that I don't want not only to not have a horizontal filter, I also don't want it to have it vertical. I mean, I want a certain area of the image to be "free" of Adamski To do this, we continued from where we had left it with the following steps: Select the vertical and horizontal layer and put them in a group by clicking on the folder.

Create group

Next we add a new mask to the created group.

Add mask

Once we have the mask created within the group, we return to the brush in black, a relatively low opacity to start, and we are dedicated to erase the element we want without the effect.

Adamski in b / w: create group and add mask

You already have your image.

SUMMARIZING:

We add two layers to the bottom layer with the Control J key
We give them name: vertical, horizontal and background
We apply the motion distortion filter to the vertical and horizontal layers
We add a mask to the vertical layer
We erase with the brush in black, the areas that we want to keep the effect horizontally.
If we want an element to be without Adamski effect, we continue from here.
We create a group with the vertical and horizontal layer
We add a mask to the group
We erase with the brush in black color and a low opacity
And ready. You already have it

IMAGES WITH ONLY VERTICAL / HORIZONTAL ELEMENTS

Your image may only have vertical or horizontal elements. In this case the philosophy is the same although it is something easier to do because we skip a step. It is the case of the image that I have given you as an example: as I had hardly any horizontal lines, what I have finally done is simply to enhance the verticals and erase the effect on the people in the photo. This has been the process:

Duplicate the background layer once
Give it the name "vertical",
Apply the filter at 90º
Add a layer mask
Erase with the black brush the area where in my case I have the human element, and with an opacity of approximately 20%, and that's it.

This was my original image:

Original image @alexadeblois

And there is the image after applying the Adamski effect settings.

Result after applying the Adamski @alexadeblois effect

If I wanted to do it for an image with dominant horizontal lines, I would simply apply the filter at 0º and erase the areas where I don't want the effect with the brush. Keep in mind that I have explained the most "complete" options. You may have the image of a sea and a horizontal sky that you want to give an abstract touch without having anything to erase. In that case, simply apply the 0º motion filter in a new layer and that's it. How about? The truth is that the effect is very cool, don't you think? If you dare to do so, I recommend that you read the article with Photoshop open, and go implementing the steps one by one. Reading while you apply it, it will be much easier for you to understand and perform. It is not difficult, but you have to look I really hope you liked this article and that you take advantage to enhance your creativity. And if you help us reach more people by sharing it on your favorite social networks, we can continue creating content for you, more time Thank you and see you soon

The HTML CheatSheet has its built-in editor where you can preview the document you are working on.