The idea here is that what you create looks like what you would see in a “gazing ball” in a garden. In other words, what would be reflected in the gazing ball.

 Not every picture makes a good orb. The more flowers and stems and leaves, the better.  Try some different stuff and you will get the hang of it.. 

If you don’t crop the picture to a square, you will end up with an oval instead of an orb, which isn’t all that bad.

Anyway — instructions:

1. Open up your image, but make sure it is only one layer and is 8-bit

2. Crop the picture into a square, any size, just square

3. Filter>Distort>Polar Coordinates>Polar to Rectangular

4. Image>Rotate>Flip Vertical

5. Filter>Distort>Polar Coordinates>Rectangular to Polar and there you go!

Be careful, it can become addicting!