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Photoshop Effects Tutorials,
Polar Coordinates
You Can Make Your Own Planet
Some of the coolest Photoshop effects tutorials deal with the distortion filters.
On this page, you'll get to play with the polar coordinates, which is a standard function in Photoshop's photo effects software.
You'll see how to take an HDR image like this Ayrshire cow mooing on a hillside (above) and turn her into the only inhabitant of a planet (below).
This is called a polar panorama ... or a polarama ... or a planet panorama. Or how about "little planet", "little world", "mini planet"? Hey, "fish-eye world" sounds fine too. As you can tell, the jury is still out.Before you engage the polar coordinates filter as part of these Photoshop effects tutorials, you must tinker with your composition's dimensions and horizon. Crop your photo into a rectangle with the horizon in the bottom quarter. It's best to have a consistent bottom quarter as that will later be the core of your planet. Also, have the horizon at the left the same level as the horizon on the right because these two sides will be joined and hopefully be as even as possible. Use your Photoshop guides to help you in this matter.
Next, you must turn your rectangle composition into a square. Uncheck the "Constrain Proportions", check "Resample Image", copy the width's measurement and paste it in the height box. You're starting to stretch ol' Bessie now.
After doing a 180-degree rotation, it's time to give Bessie the polar coordinates once-over. Choose "Rectangular to Polar".
Kinda cool,eh?You're yet to be done. Notice where the joining happened? The green field nicely blended, but the sky on the bottom-centre didn't. There are a few ways to create a seamless blend. You can clone stamp it or try the band-aid tool. I did a bit of that, but ultimately decided to copy the top half, flip it and feather erase until I was satisfied with the blending.
Another step is optional -- a judgment call. You can crop even more to focus on Bessie. She might like that.
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