Discover Basic Filters

Discover Basic Filters

There are plenty of filters that come with Photoshop naturally. In the Photoshop CS (8) there is now a filter gallery. This larger-than-life dialog box allows you to use filters a little bit like layers. This is covered in depth on the Discover Photoshop: CS Features CD (with the Basic Photoshop training).

You can apply filters onto a layer or just a selection of a layer.. There are plenty to choose from.

You'll just want to get used to trying out different filters to find out their different effects on a layer (I run through them all and their settings in the video training).
Here is the fresco filter in the CS filter gallery.

You can move the different filters layer order up and down, combine them, etc. The filters are showcased in drop down folders as you can see with a little sailboat thumbnail preview of each and a mondo size image preview.
Here I'm just showing you a few different filters you can choose from. In Photoshop 7 and below you just choose a filter from the Filter menu; most of them have their own dialog boxes for settings.

Ooh..collapsible filter folders/menus..

Stylin...

Press OK when you're happy.  (If you're happy and you know it, press OK).

If you're just fooling around that's great and when it asks you to save the document press no to retain the original without all of your filtering.  Otherwise I recommend once again making a copy of the background layer...

...anytime that you are going to change or shift pixels themselves on. There is no such thing as a filter adjustment layer; you just have to duplicate the layer and then run filters on it. Once you've done this you can also lower the opacity to let the original seep through or change the blending modes.

You can also change the blending modes to create some more effects between two layers.  These are also covered in-depth in my Basic Photoshop video tutorials training.