So does anyone else tend to play around with filters much? I currently have the most of the Alienskin ones and a few of the Autofx ones plus some others I have found on the web.

Some of them are very cool to use and time saving. Anyway was just curious how many others might use these from time to time.

Filter is a dirty word. Go and wash your mouth out with soap!

I don't think that using filters is a bad thing. I use filters all the time in my professional work. I do not, however, use any outside filters. I only use PS filters. The filters that I use commonly would include the unsharp mask, gaussian blur, median, minimum, maximum and high pass filters. I also use the lighting effects and the texturizer filters for altering light and simulating texture in an existing image. I use all of the filters equally applied directly to the image itself or to a mask made from the image to leverage a correction. There are unlimited uses for filters for the purpose of image retouching that has absolutely nothing to do with creative invention. There are certain types of images that would be virtually impossible to correct without the use of filters. Those who believe that using filters is a way of cheating to create a desired outcome would only be cheating themselves by not taking advantage of their power.

Cheers,

Jerry

If I told u...i would be giving away top secret trade secrets...

I agree with Jerry. Obviously gaussian blur and the like are necessary. I think using things like Watercolor and charcoal drawing are a little bit cliche'd and should be avoided. I've seen a couple entries that have used these and I just think, "Oh look. It's a watercolor filter." I like a little work outside of two clicks.

I am, however, a sucker for the cutout filter. I wish I saw the world in Cutout.

-Chris

Blur and noise mainly.

I confess! Of course I use filters! Not just one but several on different parts or layers of my chops. A kaleidoscope king couldn't do without it! Look at Flaming Pear; they're wonderful!

I agree mate.

jerry... you can't consider native PS filters like "filters"... when people ask about filters, they're talking about third part filters... what I abomine in any way... once all a filter can do, you can do better without it.

Heh, I don't think I ever voted for a kaleidoscope entry.

No third party Plugins (filters) here..........I go Old school.......and knock out the effect I'm trying to achieve manually....using (or trying to at least) PS tools and my techniques ...99 % of the time it takes 10 times as long but hey I have learned something and now DO NOT NEED THAT 3RD PARTY PLUGIN !!!...........Like the kids in high school math classes ...take away their calculators and give em an abacuss and see how they do ........my two cents worth.................3rd party plugins to me are just one more step closer towards total human mechanical autonomy........technology is moving at warp speed the learning curve is huge.....people at jobs are replaced by machines by the thousands ..DAILY.......we are a society that has become too dependant on technology ...along with other things like oil...and other fossil fuels....plugins etc...........with the speed we are going at its only a matter of time before we self destruct....how much is enough....how fast is fast enough...........technology is awesome ...and its also dangerous.....I don't feel it will happen in my lifetime ...but within the next 100 yrs we won't have to worry about 3rd party plugins ...cause we will be hunting for our food and clothes.......dragging a woman by her hair behind us (jk) and dragging our knuckles on the ground!!!!!! Then who the hell will care about plugins?



Remeber what they say....the next world war will be fought with sticks and stones......food for thought!!!!!

(he slowly steps down off his soap box)...lol

Just my thoughts ,,,,sorry for the babble

Im out

CB

I do use a TON of layer styles though. Some people frown on that too.

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with using filters, after all they only produce what you can produce manually just with less work. I personally think you are better off doing things maually though, for one it gives you a better understanding of what photoshop can do and two, you can more often produce better finishes doing it manually.

Anf is right on the money

Filters = bag of poop

manual experiment...;and filters with FADING are ok,, agree with Couldb and Arcacico....u have to understand "physically" how PS does those filters, iand then forget them for much part ...it's better mixing really important settings like curves,sharpeness,...fluidity filter is excellent but few people know how to use it...