NEGLECTED FILTERS

I hope everyone is enjoying their November BYOC & DSD stash from an exciting first week of November. If you are up for playing around with them and maybe learning something new then I think you will love this article by Christa!

NEGLECTED FILTERS by Christa aka cfile

Today I wanted to write about neglected filters. So often when we are making layouts we have lots of tools at our fingertips, yet we do not use them. The filters in PSE and Photo Shop [regardless of version], have fun things that can be done, but most times are not tapped into. Most people use a lot of blending with the layer palette using the linear burn, color burn, soft light etc., but really how often do you use a filter? I was intrigued when I saw a layout where the background looked like it had a swirl in it and reflected “action” on the page. It appears if the person used the distort filter>Twirl, so I set out and experimented.

The photo I am using is from the Morgue File: (www.morguefile.com)

Open it into your workspace and in the layer palette make a duplicate. On the duplicate is where you apply the twirl filter.

Going to Filters>Distort>Twirl and setting the slide all the way to the right (999) it comes up with this:

You can then add a Blur to it, change it to B/W – adjust things lower the opacity, and also add additional filters. You can add texture to it to. I added the texturizer (under texture) and crosshatch (under artistic) and blended it with papers and that gave it an interesting effect.

I then made the original flower photo as large as the work space and applied gesso brush and also used a mask on the photo to get rid of some of the large photo. I also used the same photo in smaller size and duplicated it and placed a white stroke for a photo edge and added some shadowing. Adding elements and papers from Cloud 9 and I came up with this:

 

The tools are all there...just experiment with your program so you get the most out of it. If you have a different software program - other than PSE or Photoshop, I am sure there are a lot of filters available. Play and experiment. Blend and just play and have fun with your programs functions.

[credits:
Photo: www.morguefile.com/file6711270619682
Font: Doodle Skinny
PRD: Cloud 9 & Pink Reptile's Art Journal Challenge gesso masks
Filters used: Distort>Twirl; Gaussian Blur; Filter gallery texturizer & crosshatch, additional techniques- brushes, healing tool, masking and blend modes]