Re: Filters Unlimited 2.0 For Photoshop (All). 64 Bit
Hedy Madrid
You can use filters to clean up or retouch your photos,apply special art effects that give your image the appearance ofa sketch or impressionistic painting, or create unique transformationsusing distortions and lighting effects. The filters provided byAdobe appear in the Filter menu. Some filters provided by third-partydevelopers are available as plug-ins. Once installed, these plug-infilters appear at the bottom of the Filter menu.
Smart Filters, applied to Smart Objects, let you use filtersnon-destructively. Smart Filters are stored as layer effects inthe Layers panel and can be readjusted at any time, working fromthe original image data contained in the Smart Object. For moreinformation on Smart Filter Effects and nondestructive editing,see Nondestructiveediting.
The Filter Gallery provides a preview ofmany of the special effects filters. You can apply multiple filters,turn on or off the effect of a filter, reset options for a filter, andchange the order in which filters are applied. When you are satisfiedwith the preview, you can then apply it to your image. Not all filtersin the Filter menu are available in the Filter Gallery.
Filter effects are applied in the order youselect them. You can rearrange filters after you apply them by dragginga filter name to another position in the list of applied filters.Rearranging filter effects can dramatically change the way your imagelooks. Click the eye icon nextto a filter to hide the effect in the preview image. You can alsodelete applied filters by selecting the filter and clicking the DeleteLayer icon .
Try changing settings to improve the speed of memory-intensivefilters, such as Lighting Effects, Cutout, Stained Glass, Chrome,Ripple, Spatter, Sprayed Strokes, and Glass filters. (For example,with the Stained Glass filter, increase cell size. With theCutout filter, increase Edge Simplicity, decrease Edge Fidelity,or both.)
If you plan to print to a grayscale printer, converta copy of the image to grayscale before applying filters. However,applying a filter to a color image, and then converting to grayscale,may not have the same effect as applying the filter to a grayscaleversion of the image.
Complete information on using some filtersis available in other sections. Search Adobe Help for informationon the sharpening, blurring, Lens Correction, Lens Blur, NoiseReduction, Liquify, and Vanishing Point filters.
Filtersfrom the Artistic submenu help you achieve painterly and artisticeffects for a fine arts or commercial project. For example, usethe Cutout filter for collages or typography. These filters replicatenatural or traditional media effects. All the Artistic filters canbe applied through the Filter Gallery.
TheBlur filters soften a selection or an entire image, and are usefulfor retouching. They smooth transitions by averaging the pixelsnext to the hard edges of defined lines and shaded areas in an image.
Eliminatenoise where significant color transitions occur in an image. Blurfilters smooth transitions by averaging the pixels next to the hard edgesof defined lines and shaded areas. The effect of the Blur More filteris three or four times stronger than that of the Blur filter.
Note: When Gaussian Blur, Box Blur, Motion Blur, or Shape Blur are applied to a selected image area, they will sometimes produce visually unexpected results near the edges of the selection. This is because these blur filters will use image data from outside the selected area to create the new, blurred pixels inside the selected area. For example, if the selection represents a background area that you want to blur while keeping the foreground sharp, the edges of the blurred background area will be contaminated with colors from the foreground, producing a fuzzy, muddy-looking outline around the foreground. To avoid this effect in such cases, you can use Smart Blur or Lens Blur.
Like the Artistic filters, the BrushStroke filters give a painterly or fine-arts look using differentbrush and ink stroke effects. Some of the filters add grain, paint, noise,edge detail, or texture. All the Brush Stroke filters can be appliedthrough the Filter Gallery.
The Distort filters geometrically distortan image, creating 3D or other reshaping effects. Note that thesefilters can be very memory-intensive. The Diffuse Glow, Glass, andOcean Ripple filters can be applied through the Filter Gallery.
TheNoise filters add or remove noise, or pixels with randomlydistributed color levels. This helps to blend a selection into thesurrounding pixels. Noise filters can create unusual textures orremove problem areas, such as dust and scratches.
TheRender filters create 3D shapes, cloud patterns, refraction patterns,and simulated light reflections in an image. You can also manipulateobjects in 3D space, create 3D objects (cubes, spheres, and cylinders),and create texture fills from grayscale files to produce 3D-likeeffects for lighting.
Filtersin the Sketch submenu add texture to images, often for a 3D effect.The filters also are useful for creating a fine-arts or hand-drawnlook. Many of the Sketch filters use the foreground and backgroundcolor as they redraw the image. All the Sketch filters can be appliedthrough the Filter Gallery.
Createsan image that appears to be constructed of handmade paper. Thisfilter simplifies images and combines the effects of the Stylize > Embossand Texture > Grain filters. Dark areas of the imageappear as holes in the top layer of paper, revealing the backgroundcolor.
TheStylize filters produce a painted or impressionistic effect on aselection by displacing pixels and by finding and heightening contrastin an image. After using filters like Find Edges and Trace Contourthat highlight edges, you can apply the Invert command to outlinethe edges of a color image with colored lines or to outline theedges of a grayscale image with white lines.
These filters, especially with larger radii, tend to promote either corners or curves in the image contours. In Photoshop, you can choose from the Preserve menu to favor squareness or roundness as you specify the radius value.
My settings are RGB and 8 bit/channel. I have turned on "Show all filters" in preferences/plug-ins. I thought this may have to do with the files I am working with, but even after closing those files, restarting photoshop with the new preferences clicked, and opening a very simple clean file with a one path shape converted to smart object the option is still greyed out (also not working with a hand drawn circle with marquee that is not a smart object).
Thanks for the reply Dave, unfortunately this isn't my question. I know smart objects very well (I have been using photoshop since 2002) Not bragging, I know there are many people way more advanced than I am, just want to give context that I am not a novice.
The issue is the option to apply smart filters to my smart objects or layers of any kind. I would typically just apply filters to smart objects previously and they would automatically work as smart filters, though to highlight the issue below I have shown the particular option that I am missing as well as my image settings to avoid any Bit/Channel or Color Mode advice.
Originally all filters, like Gaussian Blur, were greyed out as well. I think this may have had to do with the source files in the original file I was working with (exported from Maya at 16bit/channel then converted to 8bit/channel); and/or more likely not having the "show all filters "preference clicked (as indicated in other threads on here).
With the preference fix and a full machine restart, I see now that in my frustration rather than testing out the filters themselves I was just checking the tool bar dropdown menu. As you pointed out, having never used that dropdown menu before, I did not realize it only showed when a smart filter was already applied.
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