Photoshop Tutorial #5: Getting To Know Your Filters
The great thing about Photoshop is the possibility to modify existing pictures you may have. Whether a good picture or not, when you get done in Photoshop, the image can be improved or changed totally.
You can add extra little images to a photo or create effects that can liven up or change the scene of the photo. A great resource provided in Photoshop is the Filter found in the tool bar at the very top of your Photoshop screen.
The Filter contains a menu of effects that can be used to improve a photo or change it altogether.
The first thing you will see when clicking on Filter will be a filter gallery. The next thing you will see on the menu, you will probably make good use of during your Photoshop project and is the Correct Camera Distortion option. With this option, you can easily fix any distortions that may come from the camera used to take the photo.
The next section on the menu is adjustments. This selection brings other selections you can use to adjust the photo in different ways. Equalize will balance the light in the photo making the photograph more hi def so to speak. You can even invert the photo so it will look real neat with the dark colors turning light and the light turning dark. The adjustments selection also offers other neat tools, but for time’s sake we will just explain a couple.
Moving further down, we come across artistic, blur, and brushstroke. These three separate tools all offer an artistic edge to the photo offering different styles and looks that can create a painting or drawing effect out of the photo. These tools are very useful and offer several sub-tools that can assist in creating a custom photograph image.
We next come to distort and noise. These tools are used to change the overall look of the image as well as add some effects to change the style of the photo. These are used for more design purposes than for personal but can be fun to tinker around with. Each offers a different tool that will change your photo in different ways.
Going further towards the end of the menu, there are still more tools such as pixelate, render, sketch, texture, each adding an artistic element to your photo while changing the image entirely. The integrity of the photograph will actually be changed to look like the filter you chose. If you choose texture and select a specific texture, your photo will change in order to create an effect of that texture.
The best part about Photoshop is that it offers effects for video as well. The Filter menu offers video choices as well such as deinterlace and NTSC colors. These effects will modify any video you select to work on. As technology continues to take control, many more people are using Photoshop for video modification in hopes that it can create the magic it creates with photos and images.
