# About filters

Filters let you change the look of your images—for example, by applying mosaic tile, lighting, and three-dimensional effects. You can also use some filters to clean up or retouch your photos. In addition to the filters provided by Adobe, some third-party filters are available as well. Once installed, these filters appear at the bottom of the Filter lists.

Filters can radically change the mood of a photo or image.

You can apply filters in any of three ways:

Filter menu
  Contains all of the available filters and lets you apply filters individually.
Filter Gallery
  Displays thumbnail examples of what each filter does, like the palette. The Filter Gallery lets you apply filters cumulatively and apply individual filters more than once. You can also rearrange filters and change the settings of each filter you’ve applied to achieve the effect you want. Because it is so flexible, the Filter Gallery is often the best choice for applying filters. However, not all filters listed in the Filter menu are available in the Filter Gallery.
Effects palette
  Displays thumbnail examples of what each filter listed in the Filter menu does. However, you can also use it to apply effects and layer styles.

#### Tips for applying filters

The following information can help you understand the process of applying filters to your images.

- Preview the filter’s result. Applying filters to a large image can be time-consuming. It’s quicker to preview what the filter does in the Filter Gallery. Most filters also let you preview their result in the Filter Options dialog box and the document window. You can then choose to apply the filter or cancel the operation without losing time.

- Filters apply only to the active part of an image. Filters affect only the active, visible layer or a selected area of the layer.

- Filters don’t work on all images. You can’t use some filters on images in grayscale mode, or any filters on images in bitmap or Indexed-color mode. Many filters don’t work on 16‑bit images.

- You can reapply the previous filter. The last filter you applied appears at the top of the Filter menu. You can reapply it with the same settings you last used to further enhance the image.

#### Tips for creating visual effects with filters

Use the following techniques to create special visual results with filters:

- Feature the filter edges. If you’re applying a filter to a selected area, you can soften the edges of the filter effect by feathering the selection before you apply the filter.

- Apply filters in succession to build up effects. You can apply filters to individual layers or to several layers in succession to build up an effect. Choosing different blending modes in the Layers palette blends the effect. For a filter to affect a layer, the layer must be visible and must contain pixels.

- Create textures and backgrounds. By applying filters to solid-color or grayscale images, you can generate a variety of backgrounds and textures. You can then blur these textures. Although some filters (for example, the Glass filter) have little or no visible effect when applied to solid colors, others produce interesting effects. For such colors, you can use Add Noise, Chalk & Charcoal, Clouds, Conté Crayon, Difference Clouds, Glass, Graphic Pen, Halftone Pattern, Mezzotint, Note Paper, Pointillize, Reticulation, Rough Pastels, Sponge, or Underpainting. You can also use any of the filters in the Texture submenu.

- Improve image quality and consistency. You can disguise faults, alter or enhance images, or make a series of images look similar by applying the same filter to each.

Related Information

- Using the Effects palette
- Improve performance with filters and effects

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