Amazing Circles

What are they?

Amazing circles are altered images made through a few simple steps in Photoshop. Many interested photographers joined the Amazing Circles Flickr group, started in October, 2005 with 1,689 members and 13.2K photos uploaded. That's alot of circles!

Before and After

How to Make Amazing Circles

6 Simple Steps in Photoshop to Make Amazing Circles

Step 1:
Crop an image square

Step 2:
On the top menu bar:
a.  Select Filter
b.  Select Distort
c.  Select Polar Coordinates

Step 3:
Select Polar to Rectangle
(on the bottom)

Step 4:
On the top menu bar:
a.  Select Image
b.  Select Image Rotation
c.  Select 180˚

Step 5:
On the top menu bar:
a.  Select Filter
b.  Select Distort
c.  Select Polar Coordinates

Step 6:
Select Rectangle to Polar
(on the top)

Download PDF

Note from the author

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In the early 2000s I used to make amazing circles as a meditative sport to see what showed up. I set up an action in Photoshop and turned hundreds of photos into amazing circles with the click of a switch. Some turn out great, some not so great.

Between here and there I lost the simple steps on how to make them. I scoured the internet and finally found the steps and tucked a note in my computer. I put this blog together as a tribute to a process that was once meaningful and to make it easy for others to find the steps. It's a great Sunday-afternoon sport. You can download tons of free photos from photographers around the world to try it out @ unsplash.com