Icon Tutorial #5

A Brief Introduction to Smart Filters on CS3

For Photoshop CS3 only; beginner level; image heavy.



This tutorial can be used when making icons, but to show this feature where everyone can see it I'll be using a large image. In this case it happens to be a screenshot from episode #1 of the anime Claymore. (If you want to try it on a different screenshot you can download the others here.)



Before we can use the smart filter feature in CS3 we first must change our image into something called a smart object. All you have to do is go filter -> convert for smart filters.



This will change how it looks in the layers window.



Now I'll show how the smart filters work. Go ahead and choose a random filter to use on your choosen image. I'll being using a gaussian blur set to 10. After applying your choosen filter you should see this in your layout window:



See that image that looks like two sliding arrows to the right of where it says "gaussian blur"? Double-click on that. You'll see this now:



You're now able to change the blending mode from normal to something else, and raise or lower its opacity as you see fit.

Here's some examples:

Blending mode set to multiply at 100% opacity:


Blending mode changed to overlay at 100% opacity:


Overlay blending mode with the opacity lowered to 50%:


When you're ready just click "OK".

You can also disable some or all of the smart filters you apply to your images. In my example, clicking the eyeball to the right of "gaussian blur" disables it.....



.....OR you can click on the eyeball to the left of "smart filters" to disable ALL of the applied filters.



This is a great new feature in CS3. You won't have to backtrack through all the steps just to change the settings and/or reapply a filter with a different value. Simply double-click and adjust as needed. ^_^