Home > Tutorials > Photoshop > Intermediate

Creating the Complex from the Simple (using multiple filters in Photoshop)

The first thing you think about when you think about Photoshop is photo enhancement, photo manipulation, photo this and that. However, you can have a lot of fun just creating beautiful images out of practically nothing, out of so-so images, or out of very simple elements in a multitude of variations and incredible complexity.

The key here is "Filters". Now, I don't mean your everyday run-of-the-mill filters, like Gaussian Blur, or Crystallize (who can forget the Virus in "The 'Net", 1996). I'm talking the type of manipulations that take up pages of procedural notes and really justify that 512 MB of RAM you have sitting in your tricked out computer, or the combination of filters that leaves viewers wondering just how the artist did that.

We're talking massive filter-palooza. Well, later we'll talk massive. For now we are going to work on some exercises designed to make you familiar with the various really good filters in Photoshop.

We will start with the basic distortion filters. These filters are deceptively simple, and have been around since at least version 3 of Photoshop. This first lesson will deal with the twirl filter, and will give a fresh use for this often overused (and never abused) filter.

Before you begin, you will want to make a simple image, in order to see exactly what the twirl filter does to a raw image.

1. Create a new document (File> New). Make sure that it is an RGB image, 300 x 300 pixels, with a white background. Create a new, blank layer (Layer> New> Layer).

2. Choose the Line tool from the Tools palette. Double-click it to bring up the Options palette. Set the Weight to 30 pixels, and make sure the Anti-aliased box is NOT checked.

3. Set your Foreground color to black.

4. In the center of your image, you will want to create a vertical line extending the height of the image (so it will be 300 pixels long). Hold down the Shift key and drag your line from the top of the image to the bottom.

5. Now, in order to get this line exactly in the middle of the image, choose Select All from the Select menu, select Cut from the Edit menu, and then Paste. This is an easy way to perfectly center your element in the image field.

6. Next, you will want to make several copies of this layer. Make sure that the Layers Palette is open. Click and drag the layer over the new layer icon at the bottom of the palette (see image). This is an easy way to duplicate layers. Make five copies. We will work from the layer copies rather than the original (although in this case it would be easy to recreate one line, it will not always be that simple). Your layers should be called something like Layer 1 copy, Layer 1 copy 2, and so on.

7. Select Layer 1 copy. Go to the Filter menu, choose Distort> Twirl. You should see a dialog box with a preview window. You can either put a numerical value in the Angle box, or move the slider bar to create the twirl. Mess with this a couple of times to get a feel for what values produce what results.

8. Now we are ready to get down to business. While still on Layer 1 copy, open the Twirl dialog box, and apply an angle of 135. Click the Okay button.

9. Select Layer 1 copy 2, and open the Twirl dialog box again. This time, set the angle to -250.

10. Select Layer 1 copy 3, and apply the Twirl filter with the angle set to 500. Repeat this for the remaining layers, applying an angle of -750 to the next layer, and 999 for the last layer.

Look at how the simple line has changed form! Notice how the interaction of the layers creates a wonderfully complex interaction of line and shape!

If you could do all of this with a simple line, what might you be able to do with an image?

You can pick any image you want and apply this trick. You will need to add a couple of steps if you have an image with a background, rather than an isolated image on a transparent layer, such as this image.

Onto the second part of this process - layer blending modes!