From the course: Photoshop 2024 Essential Training

Applying filters non-destructively with Smart Filters - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop 2024 Essential Training

Start my 1-month free trial

Applying filters non-destructively with Smart Filters

“

- [Instructor] The most important thing to know before you start working with filters is that if you simply select the filter from the menu, Photoshop is going to apply that filter and make a permanent change to your image. For example, if I select the filter menu, come down to stylize and then choose oil paint. If I apply this filter, Photoshop has made a permanent change to the file right now, I can still undo it, but if I save and close this file, then it's baked into the file. So I'm going to use command Z in order to undo that. And before we create or add our filters, we're going to convert this to a smart object. Now we can do this using the layer menu using smart objects and convert to smart object like we have in previous videos. Or we can use the context sensitive menus and choose to convert to smart objects. But we can also use the filter menu and convert for smart filters. That's the same thing as converting for a smart object. So now I'll go ahead and click don't show again. And now that I have a smart object, any filter that I select will be added as a smart filter, which gives us several advantages. First, they're non-destructive and re-editable. The filter can be blended with the layer by changing the opacity and applying different blend modes. We can selectively show and hide the filter using the filter mask. And if you convert multiple layers to a single smart object, you can add a single filter across multiple layers. So I'll return to the filter menu, and because I just applied the oil paint filter, it's going to appear at the top. So I'll select it, I'll make sure that the preview is enabled, and then we can change some of the settings. So the stylization, if I move it to the left, they're going to have be shorter strokes, and if I move it to the right, there'll be longer strokes. If I move the cleanliness slider to the left, I'm going to see more detailed or a textured look. If I move it over to the right, it's going to be a longer smoother stroke. I can change the scale, which is the size of the brush stroke. If I move it over to the right, we'll get a larger brush stroke and the bristle detail. There'll be more detail on the right and less as we move it to the left. In the lighting, we can change the angle of the light as well as increase or decrease the amount of shine. Or we can turn off lighting, which can be very useful if you're using the oil paint filter as a starting point, for example, to create an underpainting. And you want to continue painting on top of this layer, adding your own paint strokes and textures. Alright, let's apply that filter. And in the layers panel, we can see that the oil paint filter has been added. We can toggle the visibility of the oil paint by toggling the eye icon. We can change or edit the settings of the filter by double clicking on the name of the filter. And then changing the settings. We can change the opacity and the blend mode of the filter by double clicking on this icon, and then changing the blend mode as well as the opacity. For now, I'll go ahead and cancel that. We can also select the smart filter mask. And here I'll tap the G key to select the gradient tool. I'll right click to reset the tool, and then I'll drag a gradient from the left to the right hand side. And wherever the mask is black, it's going to hide the filter. And wherever it's white, it's going to show the filter. This is different from having a layer mask on the layer, which would hide and show the contents of the layer. Now before we wrap up, if there are filters in the menu that are grayed out, it might be because the filter doesn't work in 16 bit and your file might be in 16 bit, or there's some filters that can't be applied to smart objects. Or in this case, there are some filters that are grayed out because I'm actually targeting the mask in the layers panel and not the image. So the next time you want to add a filter, non-destructively, be sure to convert the layer or layers into a smart object first.

Contents