I was idly fiddling with Photoshop CS3 this afternoon and thought I would have a little play with the Filter Gallery. I’m not normally one for over-using filters with my images, but I wondered if some shots could be improved with a little creativity. Here are three quick recipes for cooking up some interest in your pictures, even when they might seem pretty uninspiring to begin with.
Delicious Apple Tart
I started with this:
[Rather stodgy Apple Pie – two halves of an apple on a wooden chopping board]
Slightly dull, not much punch in the lighting. Here’s how I cooked it up:
- Levels – setting the black and white points gave the image more contrast
- Filter Gallery – Watercolour
And the end result was a much better picture:
[Apple Tart – I like this much better, especially the edge of the cut half]
Accompanied by Sweet Music
I started with this:
[Discordant – the purple background isn’t helping]
I liked the close up composition, but that background bothered me. Here’s how I cooked it up:
- Levels – setting the black and white points gave the image more contrast
- Black & White – using the Maximum White option for more punch
- Filter Gallery – Glowing Edges
This is how it turned out:
[Sweet Music – a much more graphic shot, enhancing the shiny chrome]
Makes Perfect Dining Al Fresco
I started with this:
[Misty Morning – the village pond through the fog, in Histon]
It was atmospheric to a certain extent, (I used another from the same shoot for Day #44). But I wasn’t so convinced about this one without some cooking:
- Levels – setting the black and white points gave the image more contrast
- Filter Gallery – Fresco
Which gave me:
[Al Fresco – an intriguing painterly effect]
I hope you liked my recipes. How did I choose the filter for each? Really, just by trying them out, looking at the preview and deciding whether they suited the images. That’s the tricky part!
I shall be having a go at some other images in due course. You might like to keep an eye on my Flickr set, Fun With Filters, to see the results of my experiments.