Everybody likes the crazy fish eye lens effect. But why spend so mush money on such a lens, if you create the effect in Photoshop? Here I'll explain how to create the fish eye lens effect in Photoshop.

1. First, make your selection of your fish eye view with the Elleptical Marquee Tool (M). Hold down the "Shift" key while selecting, so that you'll keep the circle perfectly round. The selection is the most important part to get a good Fish-eye effect. Most of the distortion will be at the edges and lots of emphasis on the center, so anchor the middle with something interesting.
   
   
2. Inverse your selection by going to Select > Inverse (Shift+Ctrl+I). Now press "Delete". Now you've narrowed down your image to your Fish-eye lens. Reverse your selection (Shift+Ctrl+I) to get your selection back to the Fish-eye lens.
   
   
3. While still selected, Crop the image by going to Image > Crop. With this done, you should only have your Fish-eye lens as your image.
4. The Fish-eye view is one of the standard filters in Photoshop. With your selection still on, go to Filter > Distort > Spherize. This will bring out a pop-up window with the spherize settings. Set the amount to 100% and the Mode to Normal. Now press "OK" and let Photoshop do his thing.
   
   
5. There you have it, your own created Fish-eyed view picture. Add a background color and show it to your friends. Enjoy.
   
   

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ASD - qwe   2007-12-17 09:53:49 too simple not gage Reply | Quote

Juno   2008-02-02 23:56:42 Good suggestion. Here is the same method but described in a video, much easier to follow ... http://utipu.com/app/tip/id/561 I wish that most of the help tips are recorded in such easy to follow videos. Reply | Quote

Soe   2008-04-25 19:20:49 I would like to thank you for this technique Reply | Quote

Janice - Thank You   2008-05-08 04:56:47 Thanks, you make it so easy Reply | Quote

jesse - WORKS!   2008-12-28 07:32:54 thx for the tip, exactly what i was looking for. can't believe it was right there under filters this whole time... d'oh! thx! Reply | Quote

Red Letter Creations   2009-04-22 22:57:56 You can also get a fish eye effect by going to filter, distort, lens correction Remove Distortion + or -. This will let you control the amount of fish eye. Concave or convex. Reply | Quote

Raph - fisheye lens   2009-04-24 15:15:21 i didnt know it was soo easy. Reply | Quote

hq - hq   2009-09-23 16:59:40 thanks - appreciated the way you went step by step!!! Reply | Quote

TechChick - Very nice.   2009-11-29 00:37:23 Worked extremely well. Thank you very kindly for this tutorial. Reply | Quote

care of discus fish   2009-12-07 12:09:20 exactly what i was looking for. can't believe it was right there under filters this whole time... d'oh! thx! Reply | Quote

lomo user - ok   2009-12-30 15:27:57 just like to say thanks for the tutorial but it really does not give the same effect / depth of a real fish eye, i couldnt use the filter effect as it really looks terrible in comparism... no offense just thought id say... Reply | Quote

Pete   2010-01-09 17:44:53 That was fantastic, it made my presentation on the snow look really cool! Reply | Quote

Josh - mhhmm   2010-01-10 00:31:52 I suppose that is kinda the effect, but you won't get that full distorted effect by doing it this way, it just doesn't quite look like a fish eye picture. For starters, a fish eye lens captures almost a 180 degree angle, so you would have to capture the same amount on your source image as well. The above makes it look like a very zoomed in picture with a fisheye lens, no like the stuff you see in skate mags, etc. still, cheap and easy. Reply | Quote

DrBigfinger - fisheye - thanks   2010-02-10 16:26:02 Thanks! I used your technique to add a reflection to a security mirror for a flyer. You can also fool around with the Liquify Filter, and get different fisheye effects. The liquify effect is also great for turning your friends into midgets and aliens. Thanks again! DrBigfinger Reply | Quote

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