How To Create Minimalistic Landscapes Using Blur Filters in Photoshop

 For at least 10 - 15 years I love creating abstract minimalistic landscapes such as beach and forest scenes in my post processing of photos using a range of Photoshop's blur filters. 

Here's one of my latest images that features this (and other) techniques:

The original photo was taken almost 15 years ago with a 7 megapixel Canon Camera, but I wanted to challenge myself and try to make more interesting image out of it. 

Start

I came across this image while browsing through my photo archive and kind of liked the scene with the woman enjoying standing in or close to the surf.

Editing Steps

1. I expanded the image from its 4:3 ratio to a square format making the added part transparent. Then I selected the blue sky and erased it. As I knew I wanted to create an abstract image I searched for a cloudy sky and found a suitable photo in my library, that would make a more interesting sky than a bland blue one.  

I positioned this sky a layer under the beach photo and got this: 

    

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2.  Working on Colours

I decided to work on the colours first. I didn't have a specific look in my mind  that I was going for, so I started playing around with the tools at hand in Photoshop. I created the overall look by using the  ColorLookup Adjustment in PS, in this case Fuji F125 Kodak 2395. I then intensified the blue and cyan tones as well as the tones of the sandy beach. I also enhanced the contrast with the help of a curves adjustment layer.

3. Motion Blur and Path Blur Effects

Before I used the blur filters I selected the woman and made a copy of here on a separate layer.  I also got rid of the person and the hole/ shadow in the sand using the Spot Healing Brush Tool

I  then went to the Filters menu and decided tu apply a path blur first.

The blue lines show the actual path 

- the sand/ beach from left to right and the horizon also in a straight line in that direction, which helps to separate the two main blur paths. The sky was created from left to right and then back.

In a second step I added a motion blur effect (quiet strong 1125 px) which resulted in the final blur - scape:

All I now had to do was to make the layer with the woman visible and my image was finished.

I created a layer animation video, which nicely illustrates the development of the image edit:

I hope you found this interesting and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Thank you!