Create a Zoomed In Effect in Photoshop
This tutorial will walk you through a simple process of giving a zoomed-in effect for your illustrations. This can be used in numerous ways, but primarily for designing instructional visual material.
Preview
Setting up the Photoshop document
1 First, we are going to open up Photoshop and create a new document (Ctrl + N). In the New document dialog box, set the Width and Height units to pixels (if it isn’t already). We’re creating a square canvas; set the width and height to 600 pixels. We’re creating a graphic that’s web resolution, so set the Resolution to 72 pixels/inch.
Adding graphics to the canvas
2 Choose a good resolution graphic (500 x 500px) which has enough resolution and detail to show as the zoomed part. Vector graphics are always great because you can rescale them without loss of quality. Here I am using the Envelope Icon from the free Six Revisions Plastic Iconset. Paste (Ctrl + V) the graphic to the stage and name the new layer Zoom.
3 Duplicate the Zoom layer by right-clicking on it in the Layers Panel and choosing Duplicate Layer (Ctrl + J). Name the duplicated layer Small Graphic.
4 Go to Edit > Transform > Scale and scale down this layer to 40% and place around the top center on the stage. Hide the visibility the Zoom layer.
Creating the zoom effect
5 Choose a dark gray color (#464646), hold the Shift key and using Ellipse Tool (U) to create a perfect (and big) round circle shape. Name this layer round01.
6 Duplicate the round01 layer, rename the new layer round02 and scale it down to 90%. Set the color of the ellipse shape to #707070.
7 Similarly, duplicate round02 and create a round03 with 96% scale down and color set to #ffffff.
8 Select round01 and go to Layer > Layer Style > Gradient Overlay. Click on the gradient and in the Gradient Editor, add color stops in this order: #ffffff at 2% location, #707f82 at 30%, #b5bfc1 at 35%, #536162 at 85% and #ffffff at 95% location.
9 Let us add an outline. Go to Layer Style > Stroke. The Size option should be set at 1px, Position: Inside and Color: #858585.
10 Similarly, select round02 and add gradient overlay in this order: #e3e8eb at 0% location, #ffffff at 15% location, #6b797c at 40% location, #b4bebf at 50% location, and #576264 at 100% location.
Creating the handle
11 Choose the Small Graphic layer in the Layers Panel, add a new layer on top of it (Shift + Ctrl +N), and name the new layer handle. Use the Ellipse Tool (U) and draw another round circle (remember to hold down Shift to make it a perfect circle) covering your small graphic’s main detail.
12 Duplicate handle shape layer, name it handle out, and scale it down to 95%.
13 Rasterize the handle and handle out layers by right-clicking on the respective layer in the Layers Panel and then choosing Rasterize Layer.
14 Create a marquee selection around the shape by Ctrl + clicking on handle out layer’s thumbnail in the Layers Panel. Choose the handle layer in the Layers Panel with the marquee selection still active, and then press the Delete key to delete the area beneath the selection.
15 Select > Deselect (Ctrl + D) to deselect the selection and delete handle out layer (we don’t need this layer anymore).
16 Using Rectangle Tool (U), create a thin rectangle with each end touching the handle and zoom (alternatively, you can use the Line Tool).
17 Rasterize the thin rectangle layer and merge it with handle layer by selecting both the layers in the Layers Panel and then going to Layer > Merge Layers (Ctrl + E).
18 Add some color and outlines to the handle. To change the color, go to Layer > Layer Style > Color Overlay and set the color overlay to #686868. For the stroke, go to Layer > Layer Style > Stroke and choose 2px and a color of #ffffff.
Adding the zoom detail
19 Unhide the zoom layer and move it to the top of round03 layer, in the Layer Panel.
20 Create a marquee selection around the round03 shape by Ctrl + clicking on the round03 layer thumbnail in the Layers Panel. Invert the selection by going to Select > Inverse (Shift + Ctrl + I). Select zoom layer and press the Delete key.
21 Keep the marquee selection active, don’t deselect it yet. Add an outline using a stroke of 3px and color #323232 by doing to Edit > Stroke. Then add an inner shadow layer style (Layer > Layer Style > Inner Shadow): set the Distance option to 0px and Size option to 25px.
22 Create a new layer below round01. Ctrl + click on the thumbnail of round02 to create another marquee selection. Move the selection vertically using your arrow key so that its lower tip touches the lower tip of round01. Fill the color with black (#000000) by right-clicking on the selection in the canvas and selecting Fill. Deselect (Ctrl + D) and add a Gaussian blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) with the Radius option set to 15px.
Finished!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Show us your own work by including it in the Six Revisions Flickr group.
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21 Comments
krike
December 17th, 2009
nice effect :) will be very usefull :)
PTashe
December 17th, 2009
Ok this is one of the best tuts I have ever found. Great Job@
rick
December 17th, 2009
Great tip…can see many uses for this.
Arek
December 17th, 2009
@PTashe: Realy? it’s ok but…
Jozko
December 17th, 2009
easy to follow tutorial, thanx
Dave
December 17th, 2009
@Arek: I agree, simple process, ok result. Nothing to go mad about
Laura Stafford
December 17th, 2009
Great post – I found it to be extremely helpful with the level of detail for each of the steps combined with screenshots. Thanks :)
edgar
December 17th, 2009
very useful and very good explanation, thanks!
Abraham
December 17th, 2009
Cool effect.
Deepu Balan
December 18th, 2009
Very well written… Nicely explained, thanks for the post.
-Deepu
Jon Crim
December 18th, 2009
Nice quick Photoshop tip, thanks for putting it together!
iMatt
December 19th, 2009
Very very nice effect! Will definetly come in handy!! Tnx
Ben Stokes
December 29th, 2009
Nice tutorial – Thank you very much for that.
Matt Lewsley
January 2nd, 2010
Wow, great tutorial. It looks so clean and professoinal, will definately be using it in the near future.
Justin Moore-Brown
January 8th, 2010
Fantastic tutorial sir! Definitely something I’m looking at using for a media kit I’m currently working on!
Ryan
January 18th, 2010
Great tutorial, many thanks :) For some reason steps 11-13 weren’t as straight forward for me as the “Rasterize Layer” option was greyed out. Will need to revisit this tomorrow and see if I can find my mistake.
Patrik Krupar
January 21st, 2010
Nice effect, thanks for sharing it!
thepru
April 10th, 2010
Good job. Though it would be quicker to achieve in Illustrator, and thus, easier to manage/rev.
Ariel
November 4th, 2010
Awesome just took the tut and love it
Peter Kelly
November 18th, 2010
Excellent Tutorial, Great detail and brilliant use of screen shot to illustrate what’s happening.
Muhsin
December 12th, 2011
I don’t understand the point no. 2.. Kindly would someone guide me what to copy, how to copy & where to paste it?? I can’t find the stage… What it really is?
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