Tips For Creating Special Effects - Adobe PHOTOSHOP 5.0 User Manual

Tips for creating special effects

Try the following techniques to create special
effects with filters.
You can use various
Create edge effects
techniques to treat the edges of an effect applied to
only part of an image. To leave a distinct edge,
simply apply the filter. For a soft edge, feather the
edge, and then apply the filter. For a transparent
effect, apply the filter, and then use the Fade
command to adjust the selection's blending mode
and opacity. (See "Blending filter effects" on
page 302.)
Distinct edge and Feathered edge
You can apply filters to
Apply filters to layers
individual layers or to several layers in succession
to build up an effect. For a filter to affect a layer, the
layer must be visible and must contain pixels—for
example, a neutral fill color. (See "Filling a new
layer with a neutral color" on page 270.)
Apply filters to individual channels
filter to an individual channel, apply a different
effect to each color channel, or apply the same
filter but with different settings.
For a color illustration of applying filters to
channels, see figure 13-1 on page 227.
Create backgrounds
color or grayscale shapes, you can generate a
variety of backgrounds and textures. You might
then blur these textures. Although some filters
have little or no visible effect when applied to solid
colors (for example, Glass), others produce inter-
esting effects. You might try: Add Noise, Chalk &
Charcoal, Clouds, Conté Crayon, Craquelure,
Difference Clouds, Glass, Grain, Graphic Pen,
Halftone Pattern, Mezzotint, Mosaic Tiles, Note
Paper, Patchwork, Pointillize, Reticulation, Rough
Pastels, Sponge, Stained Glass, Texture Fill,
Texturizer, and Underpainting.
Combine multiple effects with masks or with dupli-
cate images
gives you more control over transitions from one
effect to another. For example, you can filter the
selection created with a mask.
Mask with radial gradient, and Radial Blur filter applied
through mask
You can also use the history brush tool to paint a
You can apply a
filter effect onto part of the image. First, apply the
filter to an entire image. Next, step back in the
History palette to the image state before applying
the filter, and set the history brush source to the
filtered state. Then, paint the image. (See
"Reverting to any state of the image" on page 168.)
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP 5.0
By applying effects to solid-
Using masks to create selection areas
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User Guide