How To Use Adobe Photoshop CS2

Part 13. Special Effects

Task

1 How to Use Blending Modes 266

2 How to Build a Glow Effect with Stroke Path 268

3 How to Create Lighting Effects 270

4 How to Apply a Radial Blur 272

5 How to Apply a Ripple Effect 274

6 How to Add a Lens Flare 276

7 How to Add Noise Texture 278

8 How to Use the Fibers Filter 280

9 How to Distort an Image with Liquify 282

10 How to Use the Filter Gallery 284

11 How to Add Texture 286

12 How to Create a Halftone Pattern 288

13 How to Use the Vanishing Point Filter 290

You can perform two kinds of tasks with Photoshop. One is the basic, utilitarian task of image processing, and the other is the dynamic, eye-catching effects you can create by using filters and special Photoshop commands.

Until this point, you've only looked at the image-processing side of thingsexploring how to crop, rotate, and paint images. Although you almost always will need these skills more than you will need creative special effects, the reality is that special effects are just more fun. To that end, the tasks in this part of the book look at a variety of special effects you can apply fairly easily in Photoshop.

A good special effect is often the result of a careful selection so that the effect applies to only a portion of the image. A good special effect might also combine a filter or an effect with surrounding layers or the previous image state. By creating effects in combination or by applying them to specific areas, you can create effects that are professional and distinctive.

Be sure to check out the Artistic and Brush Strokes filters, which create a staggering variety of strokes, textures, and abstractions. These filters have been combined into an interactive interface called the Filter Gallery that allows you to simultaneously combine multiple filter effects.

The tasks in this part spend a fair amount of time looking at various filter options; with more than 100 native Photoshop filters built in to Photoshop CS2, we won't scratch the surface of all that's available. I've selected certain filters you can combine with other effects, such as blur or lighting effects. The filters I've selected also let me explain the general approach to working with filters, emphasizing the use of the Fade command and filter color selection. •