First Look: Inside Photoshop CS3
Posted 03/25/2007 at 1:43pm
| by David Biedny
Filters with Brains (continued)
Better blending. If you've ever used the blending modes for layers, you're familiar with the degree of creativity that's possible when you combine images using these modes to produce effects that could never be achieved with any number of layer masks or alpha channels. The Smart Filters feature implements a longtime “secret” trick known to savvy Photoshoppers: allowing blend modes to be used for filtering operations. In order to access this hidden capability, press the Control key while clicking a specific filter in the filter stack, and you can see what happens, for example, when Gaussian Blur is applied to a layer in Color Dodge mode, a striking effect.
Any of the blending modes can be applied to the currently active layer, and you'll find both stunning (and frightening) results, depending on the combinations.
Even though Smart Filters might seem like the bee's knees, there are some limitations that might annoy advanced users. Regardless of the number of filters applied to a single layer, only one layer mask can be applied to the filter stack, hampering the common practice of applying different amounts of filtering to multiple regions of an image. That's yet another item to add to our wish list for Photoshop CS4.
Gaussian Blur filter with Color Dodge blend mode delivers glowing results.
BONUS TIP: Smarter Smart Filters
If you've been frustrated by not being able use the Shadow/Highlight tool in a nondestructive Adjustment Layer, you'll be totally stoked to find that in CS3, it can be applied to a layer as a Smart Filter.
Next: It's All Black & White