The Most Popular Photography Special Effects

Photography special effects have always been and will always be popular. Whether you are beginners, amateurs or professionals, special effect photography is fun and in easy. A few years ago, you needed to invest a lot of money in devices in order to achieve what you can nowadays with a good digital editing program on your laptop. Today, we’re going to take a look at the most popular photography special effects.

Motion Blur Photographyphotography special effects motion blur photography

When it comes to photography special effects, motion blur photography is very popular. It is almost always used to highlight a sense of speed. If you don’t have the tools to create a motion blur photograph, relax, there is a way you can artificially achieve it. You can either use cameras with a slow shutter speed or simply use Adobe Photoshop to warp the images until you get the desired effect. The only downside of manipulating motion blur photography in Photoshop is that they might come out looking unprofessional or unnatural. Take your time while processing them and search for some tutorials online, you’ve got plenty to choose from.

Tilt Shift Photographyphotography special effects tilt shift

Tilt shift photography will give you images that look like miniature model scenes. It’s a very fun and immensely popular. It can be achieved with camera movements and selective focus, but also through digital post-processing. If you want to learn how to achieve images that seem taken out of a railway model scene, then we suggest you do a quick online search for tilt-shift Photoshop tutorial and start making your own fake miniature scenes and photos!

Lomo Photographyphotography special effects lomo photography

Lomo photography, or lomography as it’s called, has been all the rage in the past few years. There are websites dedicated to this style of photography and numerous cameras revived just to capture the old-school/80’s style photography. The great thing about this type of photography is that, like the others presented earlier, its special effects can be achieved through Photoshop. You don’t have to buy yourself a LOMO Russian camera from the 80’s just to get that cool look. The LOMO camera may be a cult favorite, but so is Adobe Photoshop.

HDR Photographyphotography special effects HDR photography

As we were saying earlier, we have it easy when it comes to trick photography and special effects these days, especially when we are talking about HDR photography.  The HDR comes from high-dynamic range imaging and HDR photography produces a greater dynamic range of luminosity. You can capture great HDR images with expensive cameras, but the effect can also be achieved through Photoshop (is there anything Photoshop can’t do?!). HDR photography produces colorful and striking images and the technique has become extremely popular in the past few years.

Infrared Photographyphotography special effects infrared photography

Infrared photography is one of the most stunning types of photography that exists today. Just look at the above photograph and tell us it’s not absolutely gorgeous. If you want to do it old school, then you will need a film or an image sensor that is sensitive to infrared light. But if you don’t want to waste any money on that, do it with Photoshop. The great thing about infrared photography is that it allows us to see what our eyes cannot see. We can’t see infrared light, because it lies beyond what is classified as the human visible spectrum. Everything, humans, trees, the water and buildings, can and will reflect IR light in ways that will help you achieve stunning photographs.

What is your favorite special effects photography? Would you like to add anything to our list? Share your preferences with us in the comment section below.

Print Friendly
About Dave Hughes

Computer Science graduate, Dave Hughes is the pragmatic guy of our team. No wonder he likes to call himself a ‘cool nerd’. His brightness and attention to detail are reflected into his new tech-inspired articles and reviews. He loves writing about new tools and useful resources designed to ease your effort.