Filter Effects

One of the most alluring early advantages of digital photography was the ability to create fantastic visual effects at the touch of a button. These ranged from the visually dazzling to the faintly ridiculous. In time, it has become recognized that many special filter effects are solutions looking for visual problems. Filters are now, rightfully, part of a photographer’s repertoire of techniques, but they are best reserved for a definite artistic objective. Therefore, it is important for a digital photographer to be familiar with the range of effects available in the software used.

Sharpness filters

The Sharpness filters are unlike other filters in that they are seldom used for special effects, but rather to enhance the visual quality of the image by bringing out detail. They work by examining the edges of image detail: sharpening filters increase the brightness differences or contrast at these boundaries: the Unsharp Mask (USM) filter is an important tool for increasing image sharpness.

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Behind the scenes

Image filters are groups of repeated mathematical operations. Some work by focusing on small parts of an image at a time; others need to “see” the entire image at once. For example, the USM filter looks at blocks of up to 200 pixels square at a time, while Render loads the entire image into memory. A simple filter effect to understand is Mosaic. The filter takes a group of pixels, according to the size you set, and calculates their average value by adding them all and dividing by the number of pixels.

Filter Effects: Change and Enhance Your Pictures

It then gives all the pixels in the group the same value, so the pixels appear greatly enlarged. The filter then moves to the next set of pixels and repeats the operation. Most Mosaic filters can work on small image segments at a time, but some need to operate on the entire image for each calculation. These latter types require a great deal of computer memory and calculating power. Add all of these operations together and you obtain the pixilated effect of the Mosaic filter.

Photoshop Filter Effects Encyclopedia: The Hands-On Desktop Reference for Digital Photographers

In Photoshop Filter Effects Encyclopedia, author and educator Roger Pring explains and decodes the settings of every filter that Photoshop CS2 has to offer, from Artistic filters such as Colored Pencil, Cutout, and Watercolor to Stylize filters like Bevel, Emboss, and Extrude. And, unlike many reference books that give you a lot of information you’ll never need, it is filled with easy-to-follow, step-by-step, practical recipes for creating truly amazing effects.

Distortion and Pixelate Filters

Distortion filters change the shape of the contents of an image – either overall or small portions of it – by changing the relative positions of pixels, thus retaining overall color and tone. These can be very tricky to control and need to be used with moderation. Blur effects are similar to distortion except, of course, image detail is lost because the pixel data becomes mixed together. Pixelate filters, clumping pixels of similar color values into cells, represent another order of distortion.

Learning to use filters

• Practice on small files when experimenting with filter effects.
• Try the same filter on different styles of image to discover which filters work best on particular types of imagery.
• Filters often work best if applied to selected areas.
• Repeated applications of a filter can lead to unpredictable results.
• You usually need to adjust contrast and brightness after applying a filter.
• Reduce the image to its final size on screen to check the effect of filters.

Artistic and Brush Strokes

Artistic filters in Photoshop, similarly to the artist brush effects in Corel Painter, simulate or replicate artists’ materials. Effects such as colored pencils, charcoal drawing, or painting with dry or loaded brush strokes are available. They work by using the image information and combining it with local distortion effects programmed to mimic real artists’ materials. Like the Artistic filters, the Brush Strokes filters give a painterly look using different brush- and ink-stroke effects, and the Sketch filters give similar effects but in monochrome.

Render, Stylize, and Texture

Render and Stylize filters simulate lighting effects in a scene, while Texture filters appear to raise the surface of an image to give it depth or an organic feel. All the filters in these families make heavy demands on the computer, and you may find large files take longer than usual to render. After using filters such as Find Edges and Trace Contour, which highlight edges, you can apply the Invert command to outline the edges of an image with colored lines or to outline the edges of a grayscale image with white lines.

Multiplying effects

To increase further the potential of filters:

• Apply filters to individual layers or several layers to build up the effects, altering blend modes as you go.
• Apply a sequence of different filters, then use the History Brush to blend the results.
• Apply filters to individual color channels with different settings for each.
• Apply the same filter effect to unrelated images to help make them belong together.
• Create filter effects using Smart Filter to keep the filter effect editable for future alterations.
• Use masks or selections on layers to blend effects.

Photoshop Filter Finesse Amazing Special Effects and Plug-Ins for Photoshop, Painter CD-ROM

Only Book/disk package devoted to using third-party special effects and production filters. Explains how to get outstanding effect from filters. Hundreds of tips and techniques for creating effects.

Adobe Photoshop 3: Filters and Effects

With close to 50 built-in Photoshop filters and many popular third-party filters to choose from, creating special effects can be a confusing task. With this quick guide and idea book, professional graphic artists will master the intermediate and advanced features of Photoshop 3 in no time.

CD-ROM includes all the images users need to create the special effects in the book – plus demo versions of commercial plug-in filters and several custom design filters by professional artists. Provides advanced-level techniques on using filters to apply special effects such as lighting, distortion, and textured looks to images. Complete instructions on how to create customized filters by using Photoshop’s Filter Factory. Includes coverage of Kai’s Power Tools. Covers Version 3 for Windows and Macintosh.