Filters | Blend Modes | Want more Undos? | Deleting Brushes Easily
Not to be confused with Blend Modes, filters are additional tools that can help enhance your work in photoshop. The thing about filters is the sheer number of them, which can be confusing not to mention intimidating. Tips below! To see the image full size, right click and hit “open link in new tab.”
You’ll notice that some of the filter groupings are missing, namely Blur, Render, Sharpen, and Video. Blur and Sharpen are self explanatory (they blur and sharpen things, hoorah!). Render creates new unrelated assets (like clouds and lens flares) and doesn’t really manipulate the current images while Video is… well, I simply don’t use Video. There’s only two filters in that category anyways.
The category name is usually an indicator of what’s gonna happen. Distort has filters that distort things, and Sketch has filters that can make your work more “traditional” looking
This is a SIMPLE guide. Within the filters themselves, there are tons of settings that you can manipulate. Take the case of Styllize->Extrude In that image, I extruded pyramids, but if you wanted, you could also extrude in rectangular prisms. It depends on what button you choose. You can choose how large the prisms are as well as how “deep” they extend.
Some of you will look at these filters and go “ooooooh, That’s how they do it” or “hey, I recognize that!“ Pixelate->Color Halftoneand Pixelate->Mosaic are some examples.
Distort->Displace is the most involved filter, but it can do some cool stuff!
There are some filters that seemingly do nothing and don’t pay rent. To hell with them!
Some filters depend on the foreground and background colors selected. The most notable example of these is the Sketch category. You’ll notice that some of the duotone images are light purple and white, black and white, and magenta and white. That’s because as I went through these filters, the colors picked were changed BEFORE activating the filter. A lot of the filters however, do not rely on foreground or background images.
Some filters have no parameters, meaning that once you click them, whatever result you get is just what you get (e.g. Sharpen->Sharpen). Most of the filters have controls though, so you can manipulate how strong or weak the effects are.
Filters should not be your first choice in some cases; finding images online can be just as effective. Sketch->Halftone is not a bad filter, but I simply don’t like how little controls it has. If you wanted to find halftone patterns then stick them on top of your images (maybe to create a manga look), it actually might look better than if you used the filter by itself.
Some filters are OBVIOUS. Stylize->Extrude and Texture->Stained Glass are examples of this. They’re so distinctive that they scream FILTER. Should you not use these types of filters in your art? No, but sometimes the one thing that sticks out when you overuse filters (or don’t use them properly) in photoshop is how over processed or contrived an image may become. Your viewers should remember your art for it’s content, not that filter you thought you could get away with.
Don’t take my word for it, try it! Even if you don’t like how some of these filters look, that doesn’t mean that they’re useless. Going through filters is good practice; you will begin to understand the filters that work wonders as well as filters that are better left alone
The thing to keep in mind about filters is to use them to ENHANCE your art, not detract from it. So keep calm and filter on!
Character featured is a quick sketch render of one of my gemsonas, Angel Aura.
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