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How to Create a Cool Droste Effect Photo (Step by Step)

Chad Verzosa
Last updated: March 13, 2024 - 3 min read
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What is it called when you see a picture within a picture? The answer is the Droste effect, an exciting and creative way to photograph a scene.
In French, it is also known as a mise en abyme (put in abyss). And this technique involves placing a copy of an image inside the same image. The result creates an illusion of a photo repeating infinitely.

 

Droste Effect Method One: Photoshop

Let’s go through all the steps to spiral an image in Photoshop below.
A man holding a framed painting outdoors

Step 1.

Open your image in Photoshop. Press Ctrl+O or Command+O.
Screenshot of Photoshop editing a picture of a man holding a framed painting - droste effect step one

Step 2.

Duplicate and paste the image. Press Ctrl+J or Command+J.
Screenshot of Photoshop editing a picture of a man holding a framed painting

 

Step 3.

Use Free Transform to scale the image down to size. Hold Ctrl+T or Command+T.
Screenshot of Photoshop editing a picture of a man holding a framed painting Screenshot of Photoshop editing a photo of a man holding a framed painting

Step 4.

Place the copy over the area you are going to edit.
Screenshot of Photoshop editing a photo of a man holding a framed painting - droste-effect step four

 

Step 5.

Drag the smaller picture to the bottom of the layer stack.
Screenshot of Photoshop editing software

Step 6.

Select the Quick Selection Tool. Press the “W” key.
Screenshot of Photoshop editing a photo of a man holding a framed painting - droste-effect step six

 

Step 7.

Select the area the picture will go in.
Screenshot of Photoshop editing a photo of a man holding a framed painting - droste-effect step seven

Step 8.

Select the Eraser tool. Press “E.”
Screenshot of Photoshop editing a photo of a man holding a framed painting - droste-effect step eight

 

Step 9.

Erase the areas to show the layer underneath.
Screenshot of Photoshop editing a photo of a man holding a framed painting - droste-effect step nine

Step 10.

Repeat steps two to ten as many times as you need.
Screenshot of Photoshop editing a photo of a man holding a framed painting - droste effect step ten
And here you have the final result.
The final droste effect image of a man appearing to hold a photo within a photo within a photo

 

Droste Effect Method Two: Photo Spiralysis

The other method is to open your file in Photo Spiralysis. Below is the image we’ll be using as an example.
The original image of a man holding a framed painting outdoors

Step 1.

Open the webpage of Photo Spiralysis. Click the folder icon in the top left-hand corner to import your file.
Screenshot of opening the web page of Photo Spiralysis

Step 2.

Familiarize yourself with the settings. Magnification makes the picture larger or smaller. Spirals make more or less spirals in the image. And Stretch allows you to stretch the picture further.
Step two of creating a droste effect photo on Photospiralysis

 

Step 3.

The red dot in the middle is the center point. You need to click and drag this area to adjust the pictures.
Screenshot of step three of creating a droste effect photo on Photospiralysis

Step 4.

First, we change the spirals to 2. This is when we start to see a change in our file.
Screenshot of step four of creating a droste effect image on Photospiralysis

 

Step 5.

We must ensure the picture inside our frame is not visible in our final image.
Screenshot of step five on Photospiralysis

Step 6.

Change the magnification to 2 to get more images repeated, hiding the areas we do not want.
Screenshot of changing the magnification on Photospiralysis

 

Step 7.

Changing the Stretch from 1 to 1.1 gives us a very drastic change. Now, we start to see our picture take shape.
Screenshot of changing the stretch on Photospiralysis to create a droste effect photo

Step 8.

Play around with the placement of the image by moving the red dot (center point).
Screenshot of image placement on Photospiralysis to create a droste effect photo

 

Step 9.

Change the magnification and stretch the image to find the perfect combination. We found that a 2.8 magnification showed us we were on the right track.
Screenshot of changing the magnification on Photospiralysis to create a droste effect photo

Step 10.

These were our final numbers:

  • Magnification: 2.836
  • Spirals: 2
  • Stretch: 1.103

Screenshot of editing in Photospiralysis

 

Step 11.

Click on the Create the Final Image icon, then render and save.
Screenshot of saving an image in Photospiralysis
And there we have it—an image with a spiral that repeats indefinitely.
It can be a little finicky to get right. But with patience and time, you can get exciting results.
The final image of a man appearing to hold a photo within a photo within a photo
Check out our posts on turning photos into paintings for more great Photoshop projects.

 

Examples of Droste Effect Photography

Droste effect photography is one of the topics we cover in our creative photography course, Wow Factor Photography.
Below are some of the photos taken by our students. If you’d like to learn more, check out the video course.

Droste effect photo
Photo by Stacy Anne McCormack

Droste effect photo
Photo by Stacy Anne McCormack