Magnifying Glass Effect in Photoshop Elements

From DavroPhotoFx:

 

How to Make a Magnifying Glass Effect – Elements

In this video we look at how we can create a Magnifying Glass Effect in Photoshop Elements. This technique is easy to follow in all versions of Photoshop Some of the other topics also covered inclu…

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David’s tutorial on YouTube.

Steps:

• Extract magnifying glass and hand from background by selecting the white background with quick selection tool, invert, refine (shift edge in a bit to remove all background), copy to new layer.
• Drag magnifying glass to other photo using move tool.
• Select inside the magnifying glass using magic wand, switch to photo layer to select the part of the image inside the glass, then duplicate layer (Ctrl-J), which duplicates only the selected part.
• Select the circle photo with Ctrl-click on the layer image.
• Apply the Distort -> Spherize filter.
• While keeping selection, use the Eliptical Marquee tool and deselect most of the selection, leaving an arc (a quarter-moon effect). Create new layer, fill selction with white.

• Blur with Gaussian filter, and reduce opacity to have just a hint of reflection.
• Create a shadow by duplicating the magnifying glass layer, and applying a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to it. Take “Lightness” down to minimum (-100), then clip it to layer below (with check box), the shadow layer. Apply Gaussian blur to shadow layer, then slide it down a bit (matching direction of light) and reduce opacity for a more subtle shadow.
• Can apply a Levels adjustment layer to the image in the magnifying glass to enhance the darks and make it pop more. (He used Shift when sliding the histogram sliders — not sure what that does.)