Disintegration in Photoshop

In this Instructable, I will be showing you how to make a disintegration effect in Photoshop. This is an easy way to add an awesome effect to your photography, or any picture you find. The picture I am using is one I found off of the internet.

In order to start working, you must find a picture that could use this effect. The best kinds are the ones of jumping, flying, or falling people or objects. I found mine off Google, but you can use any picture.

Open Photoshop, find "file" on the toolbar, and click open. This should take you to an explorer window from which you can find your image. If you are getting your picture from Google, you should save the picture to your computer.

In order to create a duplicate layer that we can manipulate, we must first find the focus of the picture that we want to look like it is disintegrating. In order to do this we will use the quick selection tool and select the object that we want to be our focus. (The quick selection tool is on the left toolbar. If you can't find it, find the magic wand and click and drag out to find the quick selection tool.)

Click and drag over the area you want to select with the quick selection tool. When your focus is selected like the image above, copy and paste the layer. It will look like nothing happened, but you actually have a duplicate layer to work with.

Now that you have a workable image, find the filter menu on the top toolbar, and go to liquify. Make sure that your duplicate layer is selected.

Click and drag on the edge of your image to stretch it. If necessary, increase the brush size, density, and pressure to make your work easier. Continue stretching it to get an image similar to the one shown.

Now that your image looks like it is melting its time to add the final disintegration effect. Go to your eraser on the left toolbar. Now look at the top toolbar to find the brushes. It should just be a dot. Drop that menu and find a brush that looks like a lot of tiny dots. Increase the size of the brush until it is a good size.

Now click, but do not drag, areas of your liquification. This will erase just enough of it to get a good effect. If you wish, you can change the opacity of your eraser brush to add a somewhat three-dimensional effect.