Filters For Photoshop
Shallow DOF on the photo to the left. A Field Blur filter using Photoshop was added to create a greater depth of field look to the photo on the right. In-camera blur versus done in Photoshop All these techniques can be done in-camera. But sometimes due to time, technical constraints, or other factors, getting that desired shot in-camera isn’t always possible.
In this article, I will take a look at the Blur filters in Photoshop and demonstrate how useful these effects can be when applied in post-production. Whether you want to create a motion blur effect or simply blur part of the image to create a shallow-depth-of-field look. When Photoshop CS6 was released Adobe added three new filters: Field Blur, Iris Blur, and Tilt-Shift. This brought the tally up to 14 different types of Blur effects in Photoshop. These new blur features were impressive.
Blur filters in Photoshop First, let’s take a look at few and where you access them in Photoshop. I’m using Photoshop CS6. Go up to the Menu Bar Filter and select Blur. I’m not going to describe all of them.
Instead, I will concentrate on the few that I use the most but feel free to experiment with the others. A Lens Blur was applied to the image on the left and a Motion Blur was applied to the image on the right. Gaussian Blur I use Gaussian Blur the most out of all of the blur filters. It is my general workhorse for blurring parts of an image and for softening the edges of a layer mask. It can also reduce noise in an image.
Field Blur Field Blur works great when you want to focus on an area of your photo, such as the foreground or background. You apply a pin on the part of the image where you want the focus left as it is. Then reduce the Radius to 0px, which can be done either by using the slider in the top right part of the menu or by dragging the white bar around the pin until blurring disappears. Place another pin or pins on the image where you want to blur the focus. The default setting is 15px Radius.
I applied the Field Blur to blur out the poor wilting sunflowers so that the focus was on the smiling sunflower. Note: If you have version Photoshop CS6 13.1 or Photoshop CC, you can apply these blur filters to Smart Objects.
That’s a big plus. What I found particularly impressive when either of these three blur tools are accessed is the separate panel for creating Bokeh. Read this dPS article if you want to know. Radial Blur Pick up any magazine or newspaper where you see being advertised. If you look closely, you will see some images of cars where the motion effects were applied in post-production.
Reflections, the wheels of the car, and the background are the usual tell-tale areas. Radial Blur applied twice to the front rim part of the wheel.
In the example above, I first selected the wheel rim and part of the tire using the pen tool (See Note below). The pen tool saves the selection and I can edit it later if needed. This selection was placed on its own layer and converted it to a Smart Object. I applied two Radial blurs. For the first method, I used Spin; Quality Best with a 8px blur.
I then applied another Radial blur using the Zoom method; Quality Best at 6px blur. Motion Blur For the background and other parts of the car, I used the Motion Blur effect. I duplicated the image and converted it to a Smart Object.
The car was isolated with the pen tool and I applied a layer mask so that when the motion blur is applied, it affects the background only and not the car. You will notice a little ghosting around the rear of the car. Ideally, you would also cut out the car from the duplicated image and clone the area back in with the surrounding sky, trees, and road. Disclaimer: I’m in no way inferring here in this article that to convey motion to a static shot of a car that all you need to do is apply Radial and Motion blur effects. I fully appreciate that more techniques are involved, along with time, skill, and effort, to pull off a professional retouching job. Note: I feel the Spin Blur Filter in Photoshop CC is definitely a much improved version of the Radial Blur. You add a pin over the part of your image.
Click and drag the ellipse’s borders to resize it, or you can also click and drag the handles to reshape and rotate it. It’s much faster and intuitive to use. You have more control and it works on Smart Objects. The effect is also more realistic in my opinion.
Average Blur This is a filter I don’t use that often but I wanted to demonstrate how to use it to remove color casts on your photos. With your image already opened, duplicate the layer. Go up to Filter Blur Average. It will turn the image to a solid color by producing an average of all colors in the image.
Add a Levels Adjustment layer. Click on the middle eyedropper tool and click anywhere on the solid color layer. This samples a gray point in your image. Turn off the visibility of this layer and you will see the difference, the color cast has been removed. It’s not perfect though, and you may find that further editing is required.
The colour cast has been removed. Lens Blur The Lens Blur filter is probably my favorite of all of them if I had to choose one. It does a fantastic job of replicating the shallow DOF (Depth-of-Field) look normally achieved in-camera.
While Field Blur also does a great job of this, I still prefer the Lens Blur method as you can import a depth map. That is an alpha channel which stores the selection as an editable grayscale mask in the Channels panel.
An example In this image of the rhino, I was too far away and I didn’t have a telephoto lens with me to get a nice shallow depth of field to blur out the background. A rhino taken at Dublin Zoo. So in Photoshop, I selected the rhino using the Quick Selection and Refine Edge tools. I saved this selection and named it. The selection or mask is now permanently stored as an alpha channel. To access it, I opened up the Channels panel and selected the alpha channel called rhino.
By holding down on the Cmd/Ctrl key and pressing the letter I, it inverts the mask. The rhino is now black. Remember black conceals, white reveals on masks. Next, I clicked on the RGB layer to go back to the Layers panel. I now need for the foreground as I only want the background to appear blurred. Follow these steps to do the same: Create a new layer and click on the Gradient Tool. Go up to the Gradient Editor and make sure you choose the preset Foreground to Background.
Start near the bottom of the image while holding down the Shift key and drag upwards. It may take a few tries but you want a nice transition from black to white, similar to the image below. Duplicating the gradient channel to create one alpha channel. Bear with me for the next few steps! In order to create just one alpha channel to load as a depth map for the Lens Blur filter, we need to copy the rhino selection onto the gradient layer.
So duplicate the gradient channel by right clicking on the layer or dragging the layer to the bottom of the Layers panel to the icon “Create new channel”. Name it rhino mask in this instance. Hold down the Cmd/Ctrl key and click on the rhino layer. You will see the marching ants around the rhino and the border. Go up to the Menu Bar Select Inverse.
Now the marching ants are just around the shape of the rhino. Go back up to the Menu Bar Edit Fill with Black. Click on the RGB layer and go back to the Layers panel. Now we have the rhino mask and the foreground mask on the one channel ready for the Lens Blur filter as a depth map. Now we are ready to load this channel as a depth map into the Lens Blur filter. Duplicate the layer, or if you have a new version of Photoshop convert it to a Smart Object. A separate dialog box appears and the image will initially be blurry.
Go to where it says Source and click on None. A drop down menu appears and you can select the channel you have just created, in this case “rhino mask”.
Adjust the radius value and click the Ok button. GET DAILY free tips, news and reviews via our RSS Feed Sign up to the free DPS PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE Subscribe. Guaranteed for 2 full months. Pay by PayPal or Credit Card.
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What you’ll learn in this Photoshop Tutorial:. Smart Filter options. Enabling and disabling effects This tutorial provides you with a foundation for working with Adobe Photoshop smart filters. It is the eleventh lesson in the Adobe Photoshop CS6 Digital Classroom book. For more Adobe Photoshop training options, visit AGI’s. Photoshop Tutorial: Taking advantage of Smart Filters in Photoshop CS6 The filters you applied in the last section were destructive, meaning that any changes you made using these filters affected your original image data. As you discovered in Lesson 10, “Getting Smart in Photoshop,” Smart Filters are a non-destructive way to apply filters to an image.
In this lesson, you will practice applying filters using the Smart Filter feature. Applying a Smart Filter 1 Select the monster3 layer in the Layers panel. 2 Choose Filter Convert for Smart Filters. A warning dialog box may appear, advising you that the layer will be made into a Smart Object. A Smart Object icon appears in the lower-right corner of the monster 3 layer thumbnail. This indicates that this layer is now converted for use with Smart Filters.
Next, you will apply some filters in the Filter Gallery, and then update and change the way the filters are applied to the image. The Smart Object icon on the layer thumbnail.
3 Make sure that the monster3 layer is still selected, and then choose Filter Filter Gallery. Make sure you do not select the Filter Gallery listed first in the Filter menu. Note that the last filters you used are applied to the layer by default, although these can be changed. 4 Click on the Craquelure filter effect in the list of filter effects in the lower-right side of the Filter Gallery dialog box. 5 In the filter categories section, expand the Artistic category and select Plastic Wrap.
The Plastic Wrap filter replaces the Craquelure filter. 6 Click on the Fresco filter effect and then select the Sponge filter effect from the Artistic category.
The Sponge effect replaces the Fresco effect. 7 Using the sliders, in the filter effects options, change the Brush size to 0, the Definition to 6 and the Smoothness to 2. A thumbnail appears underneath your monster3 layer named Smart Filters.
The image now has texture applied. Two filters have been applied. You have just applied filters from the Filter Gallery to the monster3 layer, much the same way you applied filters to the monster1 and monster2 layers. The difference is that you converted monster3 to a smart object before applying the filters. This offers you the opportunity to make changes, or even delete the filters at a later time.
8 In the Layers panel, double-click on Filter Gallery located underneath the monster3 layer. The Filter Gallery dialog box opens again. Editing a Smart Filter.
9 In the filter effects area, select Plastic Wrap from the list of applied filters. 10 Using the sliders in the Plastic Wrap effect options, change the Highlight Strength to 20, the Detail to 1 and the Smoothness to 1. 11 In the filter effects area of the Filter Gallery, drag Plastic Wrap below Sponge. This changes the filter order, and creates a different effect. Changing the order of the filters. 12 Choose File Save.
Filters For Photoshop Free Download
Smart Filter options Next, you will explore additional filter options. Grundig tv remote. You’ll start by fading the filters and by editing the Smart Filter Blending Options. You will then discover how to disable a filter and how to take advantage of the Filter effects mask thumbnail.
Filters For Photoshop Cs6
1 In the Layers panel, right-click (Windows) or Ctrl+click (Mac OS) on Filter Gallery, located under the monster3 layer Smart Filter. Select Edit Smart Filter Blending Options from the contextual menu. Editing the Blending options. Like the Fade option used earlier in this lesson, the Smart Filter blending options allow you to control the intensity of a filter. However, this method is non-destructive. You can change the Fade settings multiple times and not impact the original image. You can also access the Blending Options at any time, unlike the Fade dialog box, which had to be accessed immediately after applying a filter to a regular (non-smart) layer.
2 In the Blending Options dialog box, click and drag the opacity slider to the left, lowering the opacity to 60 percent. Click the Preview checkbox on, and then off, to see the change that has been applied to the image, then press OK. Editing the Blending options.