What can Filters do?
Starting with a photo to compare, we will look briefly through some image filters to see how the difference is. Needless to say, the following images are the best description
Filter> Artistic> Colored Pencil
Filter> Artistic> Cutout
Filter> Artistic> Watercolor
Filter> Blur> Blur Gassian
Filter> Blur> Motion Blur
Filter> Blur> Radial Blur
Filter> Blur> Smart Blur
Filter> Brush Strokes> Accented Edges
Filter> Distort> Pinch
Filter> Distort> Shear
Filter> Distort> Spherize
Filter> Noise> Add Noise
Filter> Noise> Reduce Noise
Filter> Pixelate> Color Halftone
Filter> Pixelate> Crystalize
Filter> Pixelate> Mosaic
Filter> Pixelate> Pointilize
Filter> Render> Clouds
Filter> Render> Difference Clouds
Filter> Render> Lens Flare
Filter> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask
Filter> Sketch> Bas Relief
Filter> Sketch> Reticulation
Filter> Sketch> Graphic Pen
Filter> Stylize> Extrude
Filter> Stylize> Find Edges
Filter> Texture> Patchwork
Filter> Texture> Stained Glass
Filter> Texture> Texturizer
Filter> Other> Maximum
Filter> Other> Minimum
Combining filters you will have better results
As in the previous articles we have mentioned, if you combine components skillfully, you will get great effects.
The following tutorial will show you how to quickly turn a color photo into a classic art photo. Many programs offer image filters but are often difficult to use and the results are not very good. In just a few minutes using Photoshop, you can have a beautiful photo that anyone who looks at will find it difficult to detect the edited image.
The picture below is the king of Bhutan, but you can take any photo you want to convert. You should choose a high resolution photo, good contrast between light and dark.
Press Ctrl + Shift + U to quickly turn the image into bright colors
Then press Ctrl + U to open the Hue / Saturation panel and set the Colorize to the Hue / Saturation / Lightness values as shown below.
Go to Hue / Saturation / Lightness and set Radius to 1.0, or higher if you want.
The image is now a reddish brown with Gaussian blur "soft" edges
Press Ctrl + Shift + N to create a new layer
Fill the new layer with a black background by going to Edit> Fill and selecting Black in the Use section.
Then go to Filters> Render> Clouds to get the result as shown below
The cloud layer should look like this, if you use Filtes> Render> Difference Clouds it will look very different.
Set the Layer Effect to Screen in the Layers Palette. Also reduce Opacity to 50% .
Create a copy of the working layer by right-clicking on the layer name in the Layer Panel and selecting Duplicate
Select the new copy layer, go to Filters> Noise> Add Noise and use the same settings as the following image. It is important to use Monochromatic settings
This layer will create a slightly noisy effect on your image. However, these noise points are still a bit "rough" so you need to make it "soft"
Go to Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur again. Setup is similar to the following figure
At this point, your photo is pretty classic, but it needs a bit more
Click on
at the bottom of the Layer Panel to open the Adjustment Layers , select Levels
Levels settings are as follows. The black arrow moving to the right causes the darker area of the image to darken, and the white arrow moving to the left will bring the image's whiteness up.
Press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E to make a copy of the image and place it on top of the layers.
On the newly created copy layer, go to Filter> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask and use the same values as the image below. This will sharpen the darker and brighter parts of the image
Set the effect of this layer to Darken and set the Opacity to 25%.
Create another copy of this layer by right-clicking on it and selecting Duplicate
Set the Lighten effect to this new copy layer and adjust its Opacity to 25%.
The image is quite beautiful at the moment but the color is still not the color of the real old photo
Go to the Layer Palette and click to open the Adjustment layer again. Create a Hue / Saturation effect layer at the top, using the settings shown in the following image
Your photo right now is exactly the old photo. The settings in this article may vary slightly because the image you use is not the same as the image in this example, but the steps are similar.
Next lesson: How to use Photoshop CS5 - Part 9: Delete complex backgrounds in Photoshop
Previous lesson: How to use Photoshop CS5 - Part 7: Design and present with the Type Character Panel