From the course: Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced

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What filters ought to be

What filters ought to be - Photoshop Tutorial

From the course: Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced

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What filters ought to be

Search the chapter names in this series for the word Filter, and you'll find just one match. Chapter 30 of the Mastery course, Nondestructive Smart Filters. Search the movie names for some specific filters, say Fresco, or Ripple, or Stained Glass, and you'll find no matches. Why? Because most filters are a waste of space. Out of the hundred plus commands under the Filter menu, perhaps a dozen - Smart Sharpen, Reduce Noise, Liquefy, a few others - are any good, and they are great. But the rest rank among the worst features in Photoshop. You know how everyone makes fun of the Magic Wand tool. Spend an afternoon with the Extrude Filter. Honestly, when you choose Extrude, Photoshop should produce a honking noise and a Cancel button. That's it, just honking and Cancel would be better than the current interface. The reason I bring this up is that most folks associate filters with special effects. But the real effects are layer affects. Malign drop shadows as much as you want. But in truth…

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