Photoshop
Filters and Special Effects
Overview
You've worked through colour theory, bitmap and vector images, and even levels and curves. Now we can finally get to the fun part: filters and special effects in Photoshop.
Here is a summary of the topics in this module:
- (1) The Filter Menu
- The filters in the Filter menu are easy to use and provide a wide number of effects for any image. We will go through the filter categories and discuss the kinds of effects each set will produce.
- (2) Sharpen Filters
- Sharpening is simply bringing a blurry image into focus. In addition to the rather limited Sharpen tool, Photoshop has four filters that do the job. Only one of these, the Unsharp Mask, has options for setting the strength and range of sharpening. In this lecture, you'll try out all four filters with particular emphasis on the Unsharp Mask.
- (3) Blur Filters
- There are several blur filters that can create an overall softening effect or blur directionally. You'll try out each one in a practice exercise.
- (4) Pattern Maker
- Pattern Maker is a new feature that lets you design seamless tiles from areas of existing images. Tiles can be used to fill background areas in an image and they can also be used as a background image on a Web page. You can save these tiles and use them in any of the layer styles where patterns are used. You'll generate patterns in a practice exercise. There is a bonus exercise in which you'll create a dramatic bevel using the pattern you created in the first exercise.
- (5) Duotones
- Duotones can be used to colourize multiple images to create a visual theme for a Web site. Old black and white photos can be tinted using a sepia duotone. We'll lead you through the basic steps of applying duotones in this lecture.
- (6) Liquify Command
- With the Liquify command you can distort images using tools that can push, pull, expand, contract, rotate and reflect pixels. It can be used for silly fun like making caricatures of people's faces or for creating special effects. In this lecture there will be two exercises. In one, you'll create a caricature and in the other, you'll be 'melting' the CD-ROM image to create abstract art.
- (7) Special Effects in Photoshop
- By combining all of the things you've learned in the course, you can create some very stunning visual effects. In this lecture you'll create a brushed metal texture and lightning, both from scratch.
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