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About Photoshop Filters

The developers at Adobe have created some amazing photoshop filters to make it easier to design and illustrate one’s own artwork. As you go from strength to strength I believe it to be beneficial to tear yourself away from Photoshop filters and concentrate on mastering layer styles, hand made gradients and shadows. All the tools are there so you can do everything manually, the Photoshop filters however are more like shortcuts.

I know shortcuts are great because there quick and creating your own work by hand can be slow, but once you have worked your way round photoshop you’ll speed up and become more independant. You’ll then find that you don’t need to use the filters that often.

Now, you may think this sounds silly but the only filter i use is “gaussian blur” and thats for shadow uses or motion illustration. I tend to use alot more of my layer styles which are located at the bottom of the layers box. If you use the layer styles and blending options correctly you can get some fantastic results.

Personal Opinion

If there’s anything I would avoid its outer glow, i’m not keen on it, I think it makes things look cheap if it’s not used right. Don’t use drop shadow all the time, sometimes it’s best to duplicate the layer add a “Colour Overlay” in black, move it under the main object that you wish to effect, then add a gaussian blur and lower opacity if neccessary. It works a charm!

What are plugins?

Photoshop plugins are independant tools created by other developers who have keen eyes on what they want. I have no idea how a plugin is created, i’d love to know how to do as alot of developers create some awesome Photoshop filters and brushes. Photoshop plugins can be found online, some are free and some can be bought in plugin packages. Its definetly worth investing or looking into acquiring these tools.

NOTE

Photoshop filters are good if you know how to use them properly, it’s best to have a look online for some photoshop filter tutorials, (e.g - go into Google and type in photoshop fire text). You’ll get some fantastic examples of how to use filters in some truly extraordinary ways.

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