Create a Magnifying Effect - Zoom

Today we will make the effect of magnifying glass. You can make very impressive effects with this technique.

1. First of all we will need a magnifying glass (try "Magnifying Glass" in Google Images)

2. A nice photo to zoom in.

3. Open Photoshop and create a new file.

   File > New

   Name  : Zoom

   Width : 1024 pixels

   Height: 768 pixels

   Resolution 72 pixels/inch

   Click Ok.

4. Place your photo on your new created file

   File > Place. Choose your photo.

5. Increase the photo size to take all the space of your image. Copy this layer.

6. Now we will insert the magnifying glass photo.

   File > Place. Choose the magnifying glass image that you have downloaded. Resize the magnifying glass to match with your    background. After that Right Click on the new created layer (that of the magnifying glass) and choose Rasterize Layer to  transform it from smart object to raster.

7. Of course we have to delete the white background of this photo.

   To do that, choose the Magic Wand Tool. Click on the White Background. If some areas have not been chosen, press Shift +Click inside them. Press Delete.

8. Now, we will delete the round lens - glass of our magnifying glass.

   To do that, choose Elliptical Marquee Tool, place in the center of the glass and with Alt+Shift pressed pull to the outside of the circle. Right Click > Transform Selection. Now you can make the circle exactly like the lens. With the arrows you can move the ellipse around. When you are done click the Tick Icon on the upper toolbar. Press Delete to delete selection.

After that we will have something like this.

9. Now, we will put on the magnifying glass some glows to create the illusion that a glass exists.

   Choose the Pen Tool. Make a half-circle object  like below:

10. Go to Paths Tab (next to Layers and Channels) and Right Click > Make Selection.

     Feather Radius : 0.

Select the Move Tool from the left Toolbox.

11. Create a new  layer from the Layers Tab.

  Then we will paint our path White.

   Choose Paint Bucket Tool, White Color and click inside the path.

12.Make a copy of your new layer. Turn the path-object upside down and move it to the opposite side of the glass.

  You can reform this object by Right-Clicking the image, and choosing Warp.

13. After that Select Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and choose a value between 3.5 and 5.

14. Until now we have a magnifying glass without a glass but has an illusion of glass.

15. Now choose the last 3 layers (Layer 1 Copy,Layer,magnifying) and press the Link Layers (At the bottom of the Layers Tab there is an icon like a chain). In this way we can move the magnifying glass with the glow around the picture.

16. Of course if you like for more realistic results we can create a new glass for our magnifying glass. To do that create again a new circle (with the Elliptical Marquee Tool - like before) inside the lens.

17. Go to the Layers Tab. Choose the background copy layer below the magnifying. Create a new layer. Paint with the bucket this layer white. Go to Select > Deselect. Now reduce the Opacity to 14%.

18. Link (as above Step 15) the 4 Layers.

19. Now go to the Copy of the original image that you want to magnify. Select it with the move tool and make the dimensions 250% width and 250% height (typical zoom of a magnifying glass). Play with the opacity so as to match exactly the place of the layer with the original background.

20. After that Select the Layer with the circle that we have created in the step 16. So Ctrl + Click on that Layer. Then Select the copy layer and then choose the Add Layer Mask button from the bottom of the Layers' Tab.

21. That's the basic trick. Of course everything depends on your good taste. So put some nice music and give it a try.