The Oil Paint Filter in Photoshop CC In this video, Julieanne demonstrates how to apply a painterly look to an image using the completely re-coded Oil Paint filter in the November release of Photoshop CC 2015. The Oil Paint Filter can be Great with some tweaking. As a former painter, I wanted the Oil Paint Filter in Photoshop to be incredible. As it stands, by itself, it is less than desirable. It looks like someone just threw a filter on a photo and called it a day. Some words come to mind, kitsch.
In my role as moderator of the member forums over at the Website, I routinely help struggling users to come to grips with the powerful, yet temperamental program we all love. Some of the most common problems are the easiest to solve, but like many technical problems, the answer often lies in knowing how to ask the question. But, over on the forums, we get the questions asked almost every way you can imagine, and over the next few weeks I’ll be bringing you a series of problem-solving tips aimed at overcoming the most bothersome and common Photoshop annoyances. If you’ve got a problem that’s stumped you, or an annoyance you’d like to see resolved, add a comment at the end of this article, and we’ll see if we can work it in!
That’s what we do here at TipSquirrel! So let’s start with that all-too-common ailment: Problem: “ I want to use the Photoshop Filter XXXXX, but it’s greyed out! Is there something wrong? Do I need to reinstall Photoshop?” The good news is, there most likely isn’t anything wrong – we just need to make a few adjustments to the file with which we’re working.
In fact, the answer most likely is staring us in the face, right beside the menu: Yes indeed, we are working with a file that has 16 bits per channel, clearly displayed as “RGB/16” in the caption bar of the image. This is the single most common reason for the filters to be greyed out. You see, a great number of filters are from an old batch of filter effects Adobe acquired many versions back, and those filters haven’t been updated to modern standards. So, while they will work with 8-bit files, they won’t work with 16-bit files. Another related problem shows itself with the Clouds filter ( Filter Render Clouds). Normally you would expect the clouds to be rendered in the foreground and background colors, but with a 16-bit file you always get black and white: Here’s how to solve both of these problems very quickly: change the bit depth of your file from 16 bits per channel to 8 bits per channel by selecting Image Mode 8 Bits/Channel.
Once you’ve made this change, all the filters become available: Problem solved, right? Well, maybe not exactly. Changing a file from 16 bits per channel to 8 bits per channel can be a hindrance, in that 8 bits per channel has fewer colors available – 256 shades of color in each of the three channels, as compared to 65,536 shades of color per channel in a 16 bit file. You may notice a degradation if the image, especially in subtle gradients such as skies, skin and clothing.
So, is there a workaround? You bet there is. There are several workarounds, in fact.
1) Make a copy of your document, and convert the copy to 8 bits per channel. Run the filter there, and copy and paste the result back into your 16 bit file. 2) Convert your critical layer or layers to a Smart Object (select the layer or multiple layers, and choose Layer Smart Objects Convert to Smart Object. Then, change the bit depth of your file by choosing Image Mode 8 Bits/Channel as we saw above. In this case, two important things happen:.
The contents of the smart object remain at 16 bits/Channel!. All the filters now work, and as a benefit, they are applied as Smart Filters (see below.). Mike has been a photographer, artist, educator, and technophile for most of his life. Early in his career, he created technical illustrations and photographs for electronic equipment manufacturers, and taught classes in computer aided drafting and 3D modeling software.
When digital cameras became widely available in the late 1990s, the move was a natural one, and has led to a happy combination of technology, software, photography and art. Mike is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop and Acrobat, and is well versed in Lightroom and Photoshop Elements, as well as Illustrator and InDesign. He has also contributed his time and efforts to the excellent work being done by Operation Photo Rescue, in restoring photographs damaged by natural disasters. As an active member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, he continues his quest for excellence in art, excellence in design, and excellence in education. Hi Michael, I found this site because my “Nvidia Tools” was greyed out in Filters but if you can’t help is there any chance you know where I can get support for this? Basically, when saving a file as a DDS texture in Photoshop, regardless of what pixels per inch I set using image size, the resulting saved file shows on reopening that it is set to 72 pixels per inch. In addition, instead of being 256kb as the dimensions should have determined it was an odd 341kb.
I sent the file to a friend and his Photoshop showed the ppi to be correct – the size I had set and intended but he did see the kb size error. So, my Photoshop is misreporting the ppi as 72 regardless and this only happens when I save as DDS.