You aren't alone if you've tried an artistic effectsuch as watercoloronly to give up because it just didn't produce convincing results. We happen to know from experience that a single filter effect can fall short of our expectations. And adding more effects on top of it just opens the door to chaos. We start throwing whatever we can think of at an image hoping for the best. It's a free-for-all and, while experimenting is great, it's also smart to know how we got there, how to repeat the combined effect, and how to change just the parts that bother usand accomplish all of this in an easy, organized, and speedy fashion. Enter the Filter Gallery with effect layers. If you haven't tried this feature yet, you're missing out on an elegant work process that will open up new ways for you to create captivating illustrations. Mix and match with filter layersWorking with filter layers isn't difficult. To get started:
Note Some filters require a lot of processing power, so if you find that you're waiting more than a few seconds to see the results of your filter in the preview pane, here's a workaround that will save time and aggravation. Make a small selection on a representative portion of the image before you access the Filter Gallery. Now, as you view the filter results, Photoshop modifies a smaller section and, consequently, does it more quickly. Take note of your settings and then click Cancel. Now, remove the selection marquee and re-create your filters and settings to apply the effect to the entire image. Make a Cutout filter and apply it once
Add a Texturizer filter on top of CutoutA texture would work nicely in our example image. To add one:
Create a Diffuse Glow filter for varietyLet's experiment with one more filter. This time, do this:
Note The background color in the Toolbox affects the color of the Diffuse Glow filter. Check to be sure that the color swatches in the Toolbox are set to their defaults: black as the foreground color and white as the background color, unless you want the diffuse glow to take on a particular color cast, as shown in Figure C2. Figure C2.Try before you commitLet's assume that the three filters together are more than this image needs.
This is the advantage of filter layers. Before you commit, you can do the following:
In our example, we think Diffuse Glow above Texturizer makes a charming photo illustration for note cards. And Texturizer above Cutout makes an equally interesting rendition of this wintry scene, again for note cards or for the title image for a presentation of photographs, or even a framed print from a vacation visit to the Rocky Mountain foothills. Save your Filter Gallery settingsCan you save Filter Gallery settings? Yes and no. Photoshop saves your last combination of filters with the values and stacking order in place. So, when you open Filter Gallery in another session, your previous settings are there waiting for you. Which brings up an important suggestion: If, in your exploration of filter combinations, you find a routine that you'd like to keep for future use, you should make an action of the filters and settings and save it. (Of course, you can also take notes on the filter sequence and values and repeat the process manually, if you prefer.) Filter Gallery remembers the last settingsAs you're working with filters in the Filter Gallery, you can either choose to keep all of the filters you've added to the layer list, trash the ones you don't want, or press the [Alt] key ([option] key on the Mac), which causes the Cancel button to change to Reset. Click Reset and the layer list reverts to the state it was in when you launched Photoshop. In Windows, pressing the [Ctrl] key changes the Cancel button to Default, which, when you click it, returns the layer list to its default condition where no filter folders are listed in the layers list. On the Mac, Photoshop apparently always retains one filter folder in its layer list, which you can't discard. To deactivate it, simply click on its Eye icon to turn it off. Note You can adjust your filtering with an additional function: the Fade Filter under the Edit menu. As soon as you commit to a filter effect or, in our example, a combination of effects from the Filter Gallery, you can modify the degree of effect and/or apply any one of 23 blending modes by choosing Edit Filter layers plus one Before we finish up, let's try one more modification routine with which you can experiment to your heart's content. We'll use the Filter Gallery layers plus an extra layer that we can't access in the Filter Gallery dialog box. 1. Open the file you wish to work with. We chose the image shown in Figure D1 for our example. 2. Preserve your original by copying the Background image. Drag the Background layer onto the Create A New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette. 3. Open the Filter Gallery with the Background Copy layer active, and choose the Watercolor filter from the Artistic folder. 4. Set the Brush Detail slider to 3, the Shadow Intensity slider to 0, and the Texture slider to 1. This gives your image a painterly look. 5. Click the New Effect Layer button at the bottom of the palette to set that filter. Next, we'll add a canvas texture to simulate the stretched cloth that painters often use for their work. 1. Choose Texturizer from the dropdown list of filters at the top of the right panel. 2. Set the Texture dropdown list to Canvas, the Scaling slider to 143, and the Relief slider to 12. 3. Observe the results, as shown in Figure D2. If you flip the order of the filters by placing Texturizer below Watercolor, the Texturizer filter takes over the image, so we'll keep Texturizer above Watercolor. 4. Click the New Effect Layer button to set the Texturizer effect. 5. Click off the Eye icon of one of the Texturizer entries or delete it by dragging one Texturizer layer to the Delete Effect Layer button at the bottom of the palette. 6. Click OK in the Filter Gallery dialog box. Using the filters, particularly Texturizer, has darkened our image, so we'll compensate by adjusting the Levels. 1. Choose Image Adjustments Levels, and move the midtone and highlight sliders so their values are 215 and 0.90, respectively. The black point should remain at 0. 2. Click OK. Finally, we can enhance the painterly quality of this image by suggesting paint thickness: a quality of oil painting where the thickness of the paint strokes creates highlights and shadows on the canvas surface. Since we can't easily accomplish this in the Filter Gallery, we'll make a separate layer in the Layers palette. 1. Drag the Background layer in the Layers palette onto the Create A New Layer button. 2. Press [Ctrl][Right Bracket] [right bracket] on the Mac) with that layer active to move the new layer to the top of the layer stack. 3. Press [Ctrl][Shift]U [shift]U on the Mac) to remove all color from this layer. Alternatively, you can choose Image Adjustments Desaturate. Choose Filter Stylize Emboss. 4. Set the Angle text box to 135, the Height text box to 5, and the Amount text box to 500. 5. Click OK. 6. Change the blending mode for this layer to Overlay and the Fill value to 65% in the Layers palette. This final filter gives the illusion of brush strokes in addition to the texture of the canvas and the simplified rendering of the feathers and beak, as shown in Figure E. Photoshop's Filter Gallery feature offers a method of control that means easier experimentation and faster results. Prior to Photoshop CS, you were forced to use labor-intensive and time-consuming methods of combining filter effects. But, as you can see from our simple examples, both trials and results come much more easily and in a fraction of the time. The next time you're looking for that one-of-a-kind artistic treatment for your image, remember how the layers feature in the Filter Gallery can give you the creative advantage you want. |