How To Use Filters In Photoshop (and Which Not To Use)

On this video tutorial, Photoshop product manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes takes a look at using filters in Photoshop – what to choose and what not to choose and how you can really improve your work in a few simple clicks.

Filters have been around in Photoshop for years – way before everybody used them on their smartphones. This might be one of the reasons some of the filters might look a bit dated, however as Hughes demonstrated in this video, there are things that you can do to change the look of existing filters and make them more interesting (and maybe even more modern). In some cases all you need to do is duplicate your image layer, apply a filter and then blend the layers in order to create a new an possibly improved version (if you are unfamiliar with blending layers we highly recommend you check out Jesús Ramirez excellent video on this topic).

Hughes also covers quite briefly the sharpening filter (smart sharpen) which he recommends to use when sharpening (Hughes has a full video on this topic which is worth checking out as well).

You can find many more Photoshop video tutorials on LensVid’s Photoshop section. You can also check out all of Hughes previous videos on this dedicated page.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.