Special Effects With Filters
Occasionally there’s a scrapbook page that looks great, but could
use a little something extra to add to the illustration. With today’s
incredible technology, cool effects for these occasions are right at our
fingertips or, rather, our computers. Photoshop programs and other image-editing
software give us the ability to apply effects to our photos through filters,
making the special little touches easy to complete.
Filters are originally named for photographer’s filters, which
typically correct fluctuations in lighting and perspective. When used
properly, a computer filter technique can truly enhance your photos and,
in turn, your scrapbook pages. In fact, filters can add a great artistic
effect to your scrapbooking. Here are a few of our favorite filters to
check out:
Motion Blur
Creating a page about a speedy road trip or a quick family pet? Try taking
a photo of your car or cat and applying the Motion Blur filter. This filter
makes it appear as if either the object or the camera were moving at the
time the photo was taken. You can add the motion as desired by selecting
the filter (by going to Filters, Blur, Motion Blur), then entering the
angle of movement you’d like into the angle option box. You can
also indicate the angle you wish to show by dragging the straight line
inside the circle to the right of the Angle option box.
Wind
Want to add a bit of breeze to a photo? By simply selecting the Wind filter
(go to Filters, Stylize, Wind), you can select from three different methods
for applying the effect and select whether you’d like it to appear
on the left or right side. It’s a neat way to add a gentle breeze
to a tree or add a little wind through someone’s hair.
Solarize
This simple filter command is a cool color-correction effect. The Solarize
filter (go to Filter, Stylize, Solarize) changes all the medium grays
in the image to 50 percent gray, all the blacks and whites to black, and
it remaps the other colors to fresh shades in between. Designer Sara Naumann
used this cool trick on her image-editing software to adjust this photo
for a cool surf ad look. (SHOW SURFING 101 image). Sara then used papers
to coordinate with the ocean water in the photo, allowing the orangey
backdrop to stand out.
Emboss
Interested in turning a cool artistic photo into an even cooler image?
The Emboss filter (go to Filter, Stylize, Emboss) adds to the dimension
of an image by making it look as if it were actually carved. The filter
finds the high-contrast edges of your image and highlights the edges with
black or white pixels, then colors the low-contrast ones with a medium
gray tone. Suddenly your photo of a man in a cowboy hat turns into an
image of a cowboy carved in stone.
Select a value for the Angle at which you’d
like the image lit, then pick the Height (a lower number such as 1 will
produce crisper, cleaner effects, while higher numbers tend to add too
much detail to an image) and the Amount, which refers to the percentage
of black and white assigned to pixels along the edges. Higher values (above
50) tend produce sharper edges.
Filters are a very simple way to enhance
your images and pages, and fairly simple to master. Just remember not
to overuse them—less is more—and to use your program’s
help feature for additional tips.
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