Stylizing filter
Extrude
The stylization filter>Extrude creates cuboids or pyramids with four sides based on the background, which converge to a point in the pyramids. To understand this implementation, a new document is filled with a gradient from black to white. After the filter has been called up, the size can be set in addition to the type, whereby the upper (cuboid) or lower (pyramid) base area is meant. You can see very clearly that the filter creates the shapes from the center in all directions after application.
The depth also determines the strength of the 3D conversion. Values from 1 to 255 are possible here, for the size only from 2 to 255. The depth can also be implemented depending on a random generator or depending on the brightness. This becomes particularly clear when you fill a document with content that varies greatly in brightness using the Filter>Render filter>Clouds and then apply the Stylization filter>Extrude. With a random value, the size is distributed according to the chaos principle; with brightness-dependent, the three-dimensionality is greater in the areas that are brighter.
Activating Closed surfaces ensures that the surface is filled with a color that is generated from the basis of the layer. If this option is not active, the surface is filled with the content of the layer. Mask incomplete blocks ensures that only complete shapes are created. Shapes that could not be created completely at the edge of the document or a selection are therefore not displayed. You could use the results of this filter as a cool background or as a basis for creating a bird's eye view of a city with a little imagination and numerous other steps.
Tile effect
The Stylize filter>Tile effect splits the content of a layer into several tiles. First, the number of tiles is defined, with Photoshop counting from top to bottom. This naturally also results in a certain size of the individual tiles. To make the tiles visible at all, Photoshop moves each tile slightly, filling in these areas. This can be the background or foreground color, an inverted version of the layer content or even the unchanged image. You can also define the size of the joint. To do this, the percentage value for Maximum shift is changed.
It is not always desirable for the undefined areas to be filled with a color or the content of the layer (inverted or original). However, transparency can also be easily achieved. Apply the tiling effect to your own taste and create a mask, for example in the layer control panel and using the Add layer mask button.
Apply the Stylize filter>Tile effect again within the mask and make sure that the joints are filled with black (if the background color is black, select Fill undefined areas with: Background color ). The mask has been equipped with the same sequence of tiles and spaces. The spaces have been filled with black color, which creates invisible areas within the mask. The background can now make its way.
Find contours / Trace contours
The stylization filter>Find contours detects hard contrast edges in the image and traces them. We are not offered any setting options, except for Edit > Fade: Find contours. If this filter is applied to a copy of a layer, further options are available thanks to the fill methods. For example, the image could be copied twice using Ctrl+J.
On the top copy, apply the Find contours filter, press Shift+Ctrl+U to desaturate and Ctrl+I to invert. On the layer below, apply the blur filter > Gaussian blur with a radius of about 2 pixels thick. Change the blending mode of the top layer to Soft light and reduce the opacity to 50%. The image looks a little more drawn.
Portrait of a Cello / Stock photo File #: 3788113 / © anne de Haas / istockphoto.com
Far more often, you could find contours or use tracing contours to optimize masks. Tracing cont ours focuses on a selected area of brightness, which is traced at the top or bottom edge. For example, to reduce unwanted noise in a photo, you can copy it using Ctrl+J and select the channel that shows the weakest noise in the channel view. Copy the channel by dragging it to the Create new channel button.
You could now adjust the channel via Image>Corrections>Brightness/Contrast so that areas and contours are further separated from each other. The stylization filter>Find contours also ensures this quite strongly. As the conversion is so hard, the Gaussian blur with a radius of 2 pixels and Matter are used to further separate the surfaces from the edges.
Hold down the Ctrl key and click on the channel thumbnail to load it as a selection and go back to the layer view. Click on the Add layer mask button. If you now click on the layer thumbnail, you can selectively blur the areas, for example with the Matter filter. The contours will be traced in black within the mask and thus omitted. You can also easily optimize the mask by hand using black or white paint.
Golden Beauty / Stock photo File #: 4102915 / © Iconogenic / istockphoto.com
Grain effect
The Stylization filter>Corn effect converts all edges in a photo into fine dots that are remotely reminiscent of film grain. You can choose between the Normal, Darken only and Lighten only modes, in which the filter is applied in the same way as with the blending modes of the same name. With Normal, the grain is distributed randomly, with Darken, light pixels are replaced by darker pixels and with Lighten, dark pixels are replaced by lighter pixels.
The Anisotropic method is somewhat out of the ordinary, in which all pixels are blurred instead of creating grain. The effect differs from the numerous blur filters in that the pixels are blurred in the direction in which the smallest contrast jumps can be seen, whereby areas are blurred more strongly. Hair in particular is rendered very painterly.
To control the strength of the blurring, you can use Edit>Fade: Corner effect or apply the filter to a copy and then simply reduce the opacity. You can also use a mask. In this example, I have excluded the face, hands and Blum from the effect.
Lilac portrait / Stock photo File #: 2045334 / © aldra / istockphoto.com
As all edges are dissolved into dots thanks to this filter (anisotropic excluded, of course), the effect could also be used to create a grunge frame. To do this, create a new layer via Layer>New>Layer or Shift+Ctrl+N and press Ctrl+A to select the document. Edit>Fill outline with width: 30px and black color will now create the base of the frame. Ctrl+D cancels the selection. The stylization filter>Corner effect in Darken only mode now creates the first roughening of the border. If you now use Ctrl+F several times, the frame will be roughened further and further. This could of course also be blurred or treated with other filters.
Luminous contours
The stylization filter>Luminous cont ours traces all edges of colors with a neon-like glow. You can adjust the width of the edges, their brightness values and softness. If the edge width is small, you can draw hair-thin lines and then use the edge brightness and smoothing to determine how many edges are captured. To test this effect, copy the background layer using Ctrl+J.
Click on Filter>Convert for smart filter to be able to edit the filter easily later. Now select Filter>Stylize Filter>Luminous Contours with Edge Width: 1, Edge Brightness: 10 and Smoothing: 4. Create a New Adjustment Layer>Black and White and go to Layer>Create Clipping Mask in the menu. This is followed by another Adjustment layer>Invert, which also has a clipping mask.
The image will be changed quite extremely, which is why the effect should be limited somewhat. To do this, double-click on the copy layer and move the black and white triangles inwards under Color range and This layer. The transitions are still too hard. For this reason, drag the triangles apart by holding down the Alt key. The effect can also be limited using the layer opacity or a mask. It is also worth switching off the Invert adjustment layer.
Old man and sewing machine / Stock photo File #: 12422683 / © Joel Carillet / istockphoto.com
Relief
The Stylization filter>Relief moves a negative copy of the layer so that the content appears to be raised or lowered. The surfaces are traced in grey, the edges with the original fill color. The angle determines whether it appears to be punched in or raised (so we practically have something like a "light direction" at hand here). The height controls the displacement of the copy in the direction of the selected angle and the strength the percentage for the color component.
This filter is also interesting when used in combination with one of Photoshop's classic painting filters, such as the Art filter>Rough painting, to simulate numerous layers of color. The Pixel Bender plug-in with OilPaint could also form the basis for a simple painting.
Spring in Holland / Stock photo File #: 8282258 / © Jaap Hart / istockphoto.com
A copy of the layer with this base (via Ctrl+J) is then treated with the Stylize filter>Relief and Angle: 120 degrees, Height: 1 pixel and Thickness: 100%. The blending mode is changed to Hard Light and the contrast is increased via Image>Corrections>Brightness/Contrast. The image has been slightly sharpened and the structures have been made harder.
If portraits are very heavily retouched, the skin may look as if it has been ironed smooth in some areas. If you want to simulate pores in some areas, the relief filter could be helpful. To do this, create a new layer and fill it with 50% gray, for example via Edit>Fill area. This is followed by the filter>Noise filter>Add noise with 10%, Gaussian normal distribution and Monochromatic, then the sharpening filter>Unsharp mask with strength: 60% and radius: 0.5 pixels.
The stylization filter>Relief with Angle: 130 degrees, Height: 1 pixel and Strength: 50% now takes care of the pores, whereby the values generally vary according to the image size. If the blending mode is changed to Soft light, the pores are inserted into the skin, but over the entire image. Therefore, click on the Add layer mask button while holding down the Alt key and paint in the pores using white paint and the brush.
Woman portrait / Stock photo File #: 6629936 / © rollover / istockphoto.com
Solarization
Solarization is a technique used in analogue photography. During development, the photo is briefly exposed to daylight, which creates a strong overexposure that causes the brighter parts of the photo to blacken. A negative image is mixed with a positive image. In Photoshop, this effect is simulated using the Stylization filter>Solarization. There are no setting options, which is why it is advisable to create a copy of the layer beforehand using Ctrl+J. Incidentally, this filter cannot be applied more than once, as the effect always remains the same. Only the channels can be edited individually.
In my opinion, this filter is hardly useful. Nevertheless, there is a good application for this effect. Press Ctrl+J for a copy of the current layer. Apply the Filter>Stylize Filter>Solarization to this copy and press Ctrl+I to invert. The blending mode is changed from Normal to Exclusion. All that is missing now is a New Adjustment Layer>Black and White. Confirm with OK and press the Auto button. Thanks to the solarization effect, an infrared look has now been created.
Spring Day / Stock photo File #: 3354118 / © DNY59 / istockphoto.com
Wind effect
The wind effect creates horizontal lines in the image that result from the existing pixel material, whereby brighter pixels are shifted more strongly. The strength can be set via wind (soft lines), storm (stronger lines with hard edges) and hurricane (weaker lines, but with an offset, shifted against each other). For the direction, you can choose between left and right.
There is a very typical application example with an icy effect as the target. To do this, create a short text in white over a black background, position it in the middle and edit it via Layer>Raster>Text. Apply the Filter>Stylize filter>Wind effect with Method: Wind and Direction: Right.
Rotate the image via Image>Image rotation>90 degrees in the UZS. Press Ctrl+F to apply the last filter used again and repeat this step three times until the lettering is straight again. The result is an ice-cold text that you could color around the edges using a colored layer with the Color Dodge blend mode.
Alternatively, this filter can be used to create a grunge background. Create a layer with a large, darker area and a smaller, lighter area. Apply the Filter>Stylize Filter>Wind Effect with Method: Storm and Direction: Left. Press Ctrl+F several times to repeat the filter until the lines have become slightly longer.
Apply further filters to the result, such as Paint Filter>Splash or Drawing Filter>Torn Edges. A texture could also support the effect.
Structuring filter
Stained glass mosaic
The name of the Structuring filter>Stained glass mosaic already tells you where it could go. This filter is ideal for creating mosaic windows. The size, and therefore also the number of tesserae, can be controlled. These are then filled with an average color in the area of the implementation.
Of course, the larger the tiles, the less the original motif can be recognized. In addition to the size of the tiles, you can also set the width of the joints. These are always filled with the foreground color. The light intensity provides a glow from the center of the selection.
To create a mosaic window, as can be seen as window decorations in churches, a suitable motif should of course also be selected. Here it is a modern Mary. To enhance the effect, I divided the picture into three sections and positioned them against a black background. These three parts are intended to represent three individual windows. This makes the effect much more interesting.
Virgin Mary Crying Blood / Stock photo File #: 15441727 / © trinaestipo / istockphoto.com
The texturing filter>stained glass mosaic with size of tesserae: 2, joint width: 1 and light intensity: 0 is now applied to each area of the image. Thanks to the small stones, the motif remains relatively visible. I deliberately switched off the light intensity in order to create a general glow across all three areas. To do this, create a new layer using Shift+Ctrl+N. Name the layer Light and change the mode to Overlay. Using the brush and white paint, paint the glow of light over all the windows.
If you still want to integrate a "holy" glow into the image, press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E to create all layers on a new layer as if they were reduced. Apply the Filter>Blur Filter>Radial Blur with Strength: 100, Method: Radial and Quality: Very Good.
Press Ctrl+F about eight times to repeat the filter. The blending mode of this layer is now changed to Dodge Linear (Add). The underlying layer with the glow can now be deactivated, as otherwise the glow would be too strong.
Tiling
If the values Joint width is set to 1 and Lighten joints is set to 5 for the Structuring filter>Tiles, you can easily see why this filter was called Tiling if the tile size is set to a value of 100. The tiles become visible, although the effect is not very appealing with these values. However, if you reduce the tile size to 2 and apply the filter to a texture, an interesting stone surface is created. The structure of textures can therefore be changed very easily. Ingenious for variants of old textures.
Text can also be inserted into a texture. To do this, write a word with the text tool and click on the layer thumbnail while holding down the Ctrl key. Now you can copy the texture in the form of the text using Ctrl+J. To make the text visible again, apply the Filter>Structuring filter>Tile with small values for Tile size and Joint width and a high value for Lighten joints.
The layer style>Flatten Edge and Relief with Relief on all edges, Depth: 60 and Size: 8, the stylization filter>Wind Effect with Method: Wind and Direction: Right and the distortion filter>Offset with a texture consisting of the original texture in black and white now create this effect. The opacity has been reduced to 50% in this example. You could also make optimizations within a mask.
Dark Haired Beauty / Stock photo File #: 13489134 / © Kriss Russell / istockphoto.com
Grain
The structuring filter>Grain is perfect for converting overly "clean" digital material into analog material. You can control the visibility of the grain via the intensity and the width and darkness of the gaps via the contrast. A wide variety of film grains and stripes are available under the grain type. Unfortunately, the grains are mostly implemented in color.
Thanks to two small tricks, you can still implement the grain as a black and white variant. Create a new layer and fill the area with 50% gray. Apply the texturing filter>grain to this layer with intensity: 40, contrast: 50 and grain type: lumpy. This is followed by the filter with the Grain type: Vertical and Intensity: 15. After confirming with OK, Shift+Ctrl+U is sufficient to desaturate the layer. The blending mode is changed to Soft light and the opacity is reduced to 60%.
A more elegant way would be to prepare the layer with the photo that is to receive the grain beforehand using Filter>Convert for Smart Filter and then apply the Structuring filter>Grain with Intensity: 40, Contrast: 50 and Grain type: Clumpy. The grain is still converted in color. After double-clicking on the options icon (on the right-hand side next to the filter name in the layer control panel), the mode can be changed from Normal to Luminance and the opacity can also be reduced. This also desaturates the colored grain.
To enhance the effect of an old photo, you could implement a New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation with Coloring activated , under Hue: 50 and Saturation: 10 as well as another Adjustment Layer>Tone Corre ction with a darkening. For the tone correction, place a small black dot in the mask and make it larger by pressing Ctrl+T. You can now easily position this dot with the move tool.
Urban Stairway / Stock photo File #: 5821133 / © Rasmus Rasmussen / istockphoto.com
Add structure
The texturing filter>Top with texture offers us four different textures by default: Brick, Burlap, Canvas and Sandstone. These are offset against the layer, whereby the size of the texture can be set via the scaling and the contrast via the relief height.
A light direction can also be determined, whereby you are offered some defaults such as bottom left, top or bottom right. This changes the play of light and shadow on the structure, making it appear either protruding or recessed.
If you are not yet satisfied with these textures, you can also prepare and load a texture you have created yourself for the Add texture filter. Seamless patterns, as can be found hundreds of times on the Internet, would be useful. But particularly large textures can also be used. By the way: The filter accepts all .psd files. The scaling can then be used in the same way as the relief height or the direction of light.
A simple paper texture can also be created very easily in Photoshop. To do this, set the foreground color to #cccccc and the background color to #bbbbbb. The render filter>Clouds now ensures a natural distribution of the colors. This is followed by the Texture filter>Add texture and Texture: Burlap, Scale: 50%, Relief height: 1 and Light: Left. The filter is applied again, with Texture: Canvas, Scale : 100% and Relief height : 3. As the texture is still quite coarse, the texture should be reduced in size using Ctrl+T. You could, of course, make the edge look a bit pitted or fold over a corner.
Grungy Paper Texture / Stock photo File #: 5925867 / © blackred / istockphoto.com
Patchwork
The texturing filter>Patchwork transforms an image into small squares, the size of which you can adjust. The squares are filled with an average color of the respective area. The squares are also displayed slightly three-dimensionally using highlights and shadows, whereby the "height" varies randomly. This can be tested very well with a layer that has been filled in black and white using the Render filter>Clouds. In this example, the structuring filter>Patchwork was implemented with square size: 1 and relief height: 7.
You could now easily color this base. To do this, I created two gradients via New adjustment layer>Gradient conversion, one from dark blue to white and one from dark brown to beige. For the upper gradient, the layer was double-clicked to access the fill options under the layer styles.
To ensure that the other gradient is only visible in the darkest areas, drag the black triangle to the right under Color range and This layer and then drag it apart while holding down the Alt key. The result is a cool background.
Cracks
The Structuring filter>Cracks not only creates cracks, but also a relief effect with a wide range of colors. Image contours are emphasized and depicted like rough plaster. The distance between the cracks can be set, as can the depth, which practically corresponds to the contrast of the edges of the cracks. The brightness, on the other hand, controls the contrast of the bottom of the cracks. When applied to textures, very interesting effects can be achieved.
If you do not want to use the colors in an image to create a relief effect, a small detour is necessary. Then create a new layer and fill it with 50% gray. Apply the texturing filter>Cracks with distance: 85, depth: 1 and brightness: 10.
As the layer showed a neutral gray, only the cracks are converted. If the blending mode is now changed to Copy into each other, the cracks could easily support the painting effect presented above.
Incidentally, the structuring and stylization filters are among the oldest areas of Photoshop, which is also evident from the fact that a preview is rarely offered.
