Diffuse Glow
The Diffuse Glow filter renders an image as though it were viewed through a soft diffusion filter. This filter adds see-through white noise to an image, with the glow fading from the center of a selection.
Displace
The Displace filter uses an image, called a displacement map, to determine how to distort a selection. For example, using a parabola-shaped displacement map, you can create an image that appears to be printed on a cloth held at its corners.
This filter requires a displacement map file composed of either a flattened image saved in Photoshop format or an image in bitmap mode. You can use your own files or the files included in the Photoshop Elements 8/Plug‑Ins/Displacement Maps folder or the Photoshop Elements 8/Presets/Textures folder.
Glass
The Glass filter makes an image appear as if it were being viewed through different types of glass. You can choose a glass effect or create your own glass surface as a Photoshop file and apply it. You can adjust scaling, distortion, and smoothness settings. When using surface controls with a file, follow the instructions for the Displace filter.
Liquify
The Liquify filter makes it easy to manipulate areas of an image as if those areas had been melted. You work with a preview image of the current layer, using special tools to warp, twirl, expand, contract, shift, or reflect areas of the image. You can make subtle changes to retouch an image or drastic distortions to create an artistic effect.
Apply the Liquify filter
- Select one of the following tools from the toolbox:
- Warp
- Pushes pixels forward as you drag.
- Turbulence
- Smoothly scrambles pixels and creates fire, clouds, waves, and similar effects. To adjust the smoothness, drag the Turbulent Jitter pop‑up slider in the Tool Options section, or enter a value between 1 and 100 in the text box. Higher values increase smoothness.
- Twirl Clockwise
- Rotates pixels clockwise as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Twirl Counter Clockwise
- Rotates pixels counterclockwise as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Pucker
- Moves pixels toward the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Bloat
- Moves pixels away from the center of the brush area as you hold down the mouse button or drag.
- Shift Pixels
- Moves pixels perpendicularly to the stroke direction. Drag to move pixels to the left, and Alt-drag (Option-drag in Mac OS) to move pixels to the right.
- Reflection
- Copies pixels to the brush area. Drag to reflect the area perpendicular to the direction of the stroke (to the left of or below the stroke). Alt-drag (Option-drag in Mac OS) to reflect the area in the direction opposite the stroke (for example, the area above a downward stroke). Use overlapping strokes to create an effect similar to a reflection in water.
- Reconstruct
- Fully or partially reverses the changes you’ve made.
- Warp
- In the Tool Options section, adjust the brush size and
pressure of the tool, as needed:
To change the brush size, drag the pop‑up slider, or enter a brush size value from 1 to 600 pixels.
To change the brush pressure, drag the pop‑up slider, or enter a brush pressure value from 1 to 100.
A
low brush pressure makes more gradual changes.If you’re using a stylus tablet, select Stylus Pressure.
To create the effect of dragging in a straight
line between the current point and the previous point that you clicked,
Shift-click with the Warp, Shift Pixels, or Reflection tool.
- (Optional) To revert to a previous state, do one of the
following:
Select the Reconstruct tool
, and
hold down the mouse button or drag over the distorted areas. The
restoration occurs more quickly at the brush center. Shift-click
to reconstruct in a straight line between the current point and
the previous point that you clicked.To restore the entire preview image to its state when you opened the dialog box, press Alt (Option in Mac OS) and click Reset. Alternatively, click Revert to restore the original image and reset the tools to their previous settings.
Ocean Ripple
The Ocean Ripple filter adds randomly spaced ripples to the image's surface, making the image look as if it were under water.
Pinch
The Pinch filter squeezes a selection or layer inward or outward.
Apply the Pinch filter
- In the Edit workspace, select an image, layer, or area.
- Choose Distort > Pinch from the Filter menu.
- Drag the slider to the right, into positive values, to pinch a selection inward toward its center; or to the left, into negative values, to shift a selection outward. Then click OK.
Polar Coordinates
The Polar Coordinates filter converts a selection from its rectangular to polar coordinates, and vice versa, according to a selected option. You can use this filter to create a cylinder anamorphosis—art popular in the 18th century—in which the distorted image appears normal when viewed in a mirrored cylinder.
Ripple
The Ripple filter creates an undulating pattern on a selection, like ripples on the surface of a pond. For greater control, use the Wave filter. Options include the amount and size of ripples.
Spherize
The Spherize filter gives objects a 3D effect by wrapping a selection around or inside a spherical shape, distorting and stretching the image.
Apply the Spherize filter
- In the Edit workspace, select an image, layer, or area.
- Choose Distort > Spherize from the Filter menu.
- For Amount, enter a positive value to stretch the image outward as though it were wrapped around a sphere. Enter a negative amount to compress the image inward as though it were wrapped inside a sphere.
- For Mode, choose normal, horizontal, or vertical, and then click OK.
Twirl
The Twirl filter rotates an image or selection more sharply in the center than at the edges. Specifying an angle produces a twirl pattern. You can drag the slider to the right into positive values to twirl the image clockwise, drag the slider to the left into negative values to twirl counterclockwise, or enter a value between ‑999 and 999.
