How to Distort Photography
Distorting and changing photographs is something that is easy to do, and difficult to master. You can distort photos manually by using lens filters when you take pictures to create different distortion effects. You can also distort photos digitally using photo editing software to affect the images once you have them on your computer. Both techniques will alter the photos, but typically it will take you less time and cost you less money to use software on your computer rather than investing in lens filters. If you are wanting to do professional or semi-professional photography, however, the lens filters will become an essential part of your toolkit.
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Instructions
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Lens Filters
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Determine if you want a screw-on filter or a front filter. A screw-on type filter will screw into the lens that's attached to your camera. It won't move relative to the lens, but it must correspond to the size of your lens to work. The screw-on sizes are expressed in a number of millimeters between 46 and 82. Check the size of your lenses before you look for screw-on lens filters. Front filters are simply held in front of the lens of the camera while you're taking a picture. These will work on any camera, but obviously take two hands to operate, so they can be cumbersome if you are using the same filter for several shots.
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Hold or screw the filter in front of the lens of your camera. Filter types range from the simple polarization filter, which helps to cut the glare coming into the lens, to fish-eye filters, which distort the entire image. Choosing the right filter is a matter of taste and experimentation. If you find a local camera supply shop, they will let you test the filters in the store and help you find one that will work best for your needs.
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Take pictures with and without the filter. Especially right at first, give yourself a reference between what the photo looks like without any distortion and what it looks like with the filter in place. That way you can learn what effects the filter will have and how, exactly, it will distort your photos.
Photo Editing Software
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Open your favorite photo editing tool. If you don't already have photo editing software, some options are Adobe's Photoshop, the free, open source software Paint.NET and the online editor Picnik. A wide range in price and features are included in photo editing software. Basic distortions such as blurring are available in all of the options, but more specialized effects might only be available in the more expensive software.
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Open the photo that you want to distort. Find the "Effects" menu. In tools like Photoshop and Paint.NET, it's one of the main menus at the top of the window. In the online tool, Picnik, you first need to click on the "Create" tab and then you can see the Effects sub-tab underneath that.
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Select one of the effects from the list of options. One of the most common ways to distort a picture is with a blur effect. Choose the effect and then set the options for that effect. A dialog box will appear with controls that you can use to adjust the intensity or activity. For example you can select how much the blur will happen and, perhaps, the direction of the blur. Click "OK" or "Apply" if you like the changes, "Cancel" if you don't.
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Paint the distortion onto the picture using a brush if you choose an effect that allows it. For example, a smear effect allows you to click and drag the mouse on the photo to smear the image as if it were wet paint. The dialog box for an effect like this will give you brush options to help you distort the photo just the way you want.
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Tips & Warnings
Make your own lens filters from sunglasses lenses, glasses of water or colored cellophane wrap.
Use the Undo feature when photo editing by pressing "Ctrl+Z" on the keyboard.
Save the distorted photo with a different name so you preserve the original in case you want to do something different with it later.
Experiment with the different distortion effects to see what they do and then undo them to get back to your original photo.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images
