How to create Amazing circles
Kamome has made an excellent technique for making amazing circles. This is a more detailed description:
Make a square selection
1. Open an image in Photoshop (screenshots are from Photoshop CS2 on Mac). Higher resolution and size will give better results. I have used a picture I took myself some time ago. If you want to use the same picture for this How to, you can find it here.
2. You need to make a selection that is squared. Use the selection tool, and set the aspect ratio to fixed:
3. Enter the same number in both fields. 1 and 1 works.
4. Make a selection.
Apply the filter
5. Apply the filter Polar Coordinates:
6. In this step, use the bottom radio button, marked “Polar to Rectangular”:
7. Now your image will turn into something that may look interesting at best, but we're not yet there:
Rotate and apply filter again
8. Rotate the selection 180 degrees. There are a few different ways to do this. One of them is to use the Edit menu, then Transform and Rotate 180 degrees.
9. Now apply the same filter we did in point 5. But do NOT just choose it from the top of the Filter menu. We are going to change one of the parameters so you have to choose it from Filters > Distort > Polar Coordinates… again.
This time, choose the upper radio button, labeled “Rectangular to Polar”:
Crop and save
10. Crop your picture to get rid of the stuff surrounding your new Amazing circle:
11. Voila!
Save and upload to Flickr.
12. I have created a group for Amazing circles. Please join!
You might want to have a look at all the other posts I have about Flickr!
Update 1: 100 members
Now 100 members on the Flickr group. Read about it here.
Update 2: 400 members
As of December 25, 2005, the Flickr group has over 400 members, and appproaching 3 500 amazing circles. Wow!
Update 3: Digged
Update 4: Amazing circles with GIMP
Flatfield at Flickr has posted instructions how to make Amazing Circles with GIMP.
Update 5: Dumpr.net
If you’re lazy 
just use the new automatic Amazing circles tool at Dumpr.net.
Sponsored links
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A great, simple yet so pleasing way to make the circles …Thank you !! dbuk2
Fabulous! Hope I can replicate….really, really nice technique.
Thanks to Soeradjoen in Flickr for letting me know about this.
Looks like the exact same steps will work in AfterEffects for moving footage. You just have to nest your comps.
I’m off to try it!
It ended up being cool
Does anyone have the instructions for this action for PaintShop Pro ? (Any version ?)
Thanks
Hint: You can leave the selection tool in Normal mode – you don’t need to mess with the aspect ratio settings.
Just hold down the Shift key while making a rectangular selection. As long as the Shift key is down, the tool is locked in “square” mode.
(using Photoshop on a Mac)
I’m hooked, brill and easy thanks Judy x
Thanks everybody!
@Keith: Yes, I know. Thanks! I use a script for my circles, and try lots of different spots in the picture before finding a good one. So setting the aspect ratio saves me some fingers on the keyboard.
Thank you for sharing…
very interesting…
Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka
I hope im not asking the same thing you’ve heard a hundred times..
Are these instructions for the amazing circles good for Photoshop 7 or
Paintshop Pro 7 ? thanks !
Yes, Linda. They work perfectly with Photoshop 7. I’m not sure about Paintshop Pro 7. If you have a polar filter it would work. Anyone who does know for sure?
Thank you much Oyvind. Looking foward to exploring this
amazing 0OooooooO0 circles.
Well I made my first one using Photoshop7. Not bad, just need to know how
to round it from oblong.Also whats the easiest way to remove the
background edges ; the lasso tools are very difficult because of a disability
which affects my hands(steadiness/accuracy)
Here’s a look at it on Flickr
LOL, Marie. Love your blog’s tagline:
“This blog is about organization, medical librarianship, and sometimes monkeys and/or bananas.”
Wish I had thought of something as clever as that…
I made a spin-off from amazing circles on Flickr; maybe you’d like to take a look?
http://www.flickr.com/groups/amazingdroplets/
The tutorial works great! thanks!
I found this tutorial from a link in the Amazing Circles group on Flickr. This is handy and easy to duplicate in Paint Shop Pro 9. The results are much better than Dumpr as the site outputs at 500×500. I’ll use the manual method for any circles that give spectacular results. Thanks for outlining it for us!
Thanks birdtoes and abbydonkrafts!
Adam: Cool group. Lots of nice Photoshop magic!
I really love the techniques u did…I also got this project to do and it’s all about circles
Hey this was amazing, thank you lots for posting this… keep em coming!!!
Cool stuff for sure. couple of days ago i also posted kind of post here it my forum http://www.visionzgfx.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=139
how come my DISTORT is always grayed out? i am using cs3. what am i doing wrong?
Thank you! This was really fun!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have transformed my mediocre circles (faffing around with lighting, twirling and cropping) into beautiful, shiny spheres.
Thank you!!!
I accomplished most of this…but can’t figure out how to ‘crop and get rid of the area around it without said area being white. HELP!