Photoshop® CS3 Bible

Chapter 10. Corrective Filtering

IN THIS CHAPTER

Using the corrective, destructive, and effects filters

Working with the new Smart Filters feature, including Smart Filters masks

Mixing a filtered image with the original

Fixing the focus of an image with Unsharp Mask

Highlighting edges with the High Pass filter

Creating glowing images with Gaussian Blur

Using the Blur filter

Feathering a selection using Maximum and Gaussian Blur

Sharpening images

Getting rid of noise and artifacts

Reducing moiré patterns in scanned images

Using the Average filter

In Photoshop, filters enable you to apply automated, yet customizable, special effects to an image. Although named after photographers' filters, which typically correct lighting fluctuations and perspective, Photoshop can help you accomplish much more. You can slightly increase the focus of an image, introduce random pixels, add depth to an image, break an image apart, or mimic a variety of artistic media, textures, natural and man-made substances, and distortions. Just about anything you can imagine doing to your photo can be achieved with one or more of the filters — and some of the most amazing results can be obtained through filter combinations, making for a nearly unlimited number of effects.

You may be approaching the whole concept of filters with some skepticism. If you're a veteran photographer or seasoned Photoshop user, you may want to write them off as little better than the layer styles discussed in Chapter 18, a bunch of "canned" effects ...