Zoom effects can be done through using a camera, but you can also get some interesting results when you use certain filters in Photoshop. This effect works great when used on photographs of moving objects, especially motor-sport photographs, but the effect can be just as stunning when used on still images.

1.) The first step is to choose your image you would like to work with, and then choose the elliptical marquee tool from the toolbox. Once you have chosen the tool you need to make a selection on your image, you can also hold down the spacebar to reposition the selection as you are drawing it.

2.) Now, it’s important to feather the selection. If you don’t the effect will be too harsh and obvious. The feather creates a soft edge and a smooth transition to the blurred areas. So you need to choose the options Select > Modify > Feather. Change the size of the feather radius depending on the resolution.

3.) Right now you have a selection around the center of the image, and you want to select everything but the center. Choose Select > Inverse and you should see the selection go around the edge of your page now.

4.) Next choose the options Filter > Blur > Radial Blur and choose Zoom as the method, select good for quality. Choose your amount to suit. For a heavier blur use 100. You might have to test it and undo a few times to get exactly what looks best on your image.

5.) Changing the feather and the blur amount will change the effect. Experiment with different shaped selections and different amounts of blur. In some cases you may want to apply the blur more than once.

Auto Color

Image > Adjustments > Auto Color (Ctrl + Shift + B) For those of you that are professionals in the color-correcting field, this is a great feature to sometimes fix the poor colors a digital camera can capture.

Auto Levels

Image > Adjustments > Auto Levels or (Ctrl + Shift + L)?This is another quick way to do some minor color-correcting on your images. What this does is correct the black point and white point in your image automatically. It’s looking for the nearest-to-white color and setting that as the white point, then finding the nearest-to-black.

Auto Contrast

Image > Adjustments > Auto Contrast or (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + L) Auto contrast is another quick adjustment for Photoshop to automatically color correct your image. You usually don’t need to use this with Auto Levels, but sometimes it helps for images that look a bit more washed-out than you’d like.

Auto-Align Layers

Edit > Auto-Align Layers This feature is pretty cool as it attempts to align the content on your layers as close as Photoshop can figure out. When you run this command you’ll get a set of options as to how you want Photoshop to try to align. You’ll need to have your layers selected in the Layers palette by Ctrl-clicking or Shift-clicking on the layers. This is pretty much your savior for stitching together panoramas.

Auto-Blend Layers

Edit > Auto-blend Layers ?Like Auto-Align, this feature is probably most useful in photography situations. When stitching together a panorama, it will attempt to match and blend the color across all of your layers to make sure your stitch looks seamless.

Vertical + Horizontal Centering

Layer > Align > (options)…?This one is great when mocking up a new website design. This will allow you to align things vertically and horizontally to the center, left, right and top. Make sure your text layer is higher in your layers palette than the one you want to align with. Click on both layers by control-clicking or shift-clicking.

Vertical + Horizontal Centering (to a selection)

Layer > Align to Selection > (options)…?If you don’t have another layer you want to align something to, you can make a section and align your object to the selection. Just make sure the layer you want to align is selected in the Layers palette before going to the Layer menu.

Straighten Crooked Photos

You’ll want to start with the Ruler tool (located under the Eyedropper [I]) and draw a line for your horizontal axis to be straightened. After drawing your line, go to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. Photoshop will have automatically entered the angle in degrees needed to straighten your image, so just click OK. After running this you will have white areas in the corners, so be prepared to crop a bit.