What’s In A Name

So a lot of people see me doing crazy stuff with filters in Photoshop and I often ask people if they ever use filters. I was surprised to find out that very few actually do. The ones they do use are common ones like Blur or Sharpen, but there are dozens of other filters in Photoshop that no one ever really bothers with because they either didn’t know they were there or were put off by the name. Don’t let that throw you off. Just because a filters bears a certain name that doesn’t mean it cannot contribute to a really cool effect. A while back I did a tutorial on creating water droplets on a bottle. The effect was achieved by using the Stained Glass and the Plaster filters. Going strictly by the names I would never have considered they would create such an effect but they did. So my point here is to experiment. Don’t pay attention to what a filter is called. Try it out.! Play with the settings on different images. Try a filter you have never used before. You just might find that one effect you’ve been looking for. The gems are already there in Photoshop, you just have to dig them up. Enjoy!!!