How to Create the Droste Effect in Photoshop

Have you seen those recursive photos where the image seems to continue in an endless loop, mostly commonly found where the subject is holding a frame or photos and inside that areas is the same photo appears in itself repeatedly? This is known as the Droste effect, and it might be a lot simpler to achieve than you thought.

Photographer and Digital Artist Antti Karppinen shows off how easily the effect can be done within Adobe Photoshop, but it is a bit repetitive depending on how many times you want the image to repeat itself. You just need any image with an area to use as the looped area in which you want to have it repeat itself, and it doesn't have to be limited to the common examples of picture frames or printed photos. You can get pretty creative with the reoccurring area, so don't limit yourself to square and rectangular objects.

If you are looking for an even easier solution to have the Droste effect applied to your work, Karppinen shows how he uses PhotoSpiralysis to do most of the work for him.

Have you done this effect before? What methods did you use? Post your examples in the comments below.

[via Antti Karppinen]

Alex Ventura's picture

Staff writer Alex Ventura is a professional photographer based out of the Houston area that specializes in automotive and glamour with the occasional adventures into other genres. He regularly covers automotive related events for Houston Streets & Spekture with some publications in the United States.

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2 Comments

Is it me or the overly tattooed photo models has become "cliche" ?

wow i need to try this