Tips for creating special effects

Creating edge effects: You can use various techniques to treat the edges of an effect applied to only part of an image. To leave a distinct edge, simply apply the filter. For a soft edge, feather the edge, and then apply the filter. For a transparent effect, apply the filter, and then use the Fade command to adjust the selection’s blending mode and opacity.
Applying filters to layers: You can apply filters to individual layers or to several layers in succession to build up an effect. For a filter to affect a layer, the layer must be visible and must contain pixels—for example, a neutral fill color.
Applying filters to individual channels: You can apply a filter to an individual channel, apply a different effect to each color channel, or apply the same filter but with different settings.
Creating backgrounds: By applying effects to solid‑color or grayscale shapes, you can generate a variety of backgrounds and textures. You might then blur these textures. Although some filters have little or no visible effect when applied to solid colors (for example, Glass), others produce interesting effects.
Combining multiple effects with masks or duplicate images: Using masks to create selection areas gives you more control over transitions from one effect to another. For example, you can filter the selection created with a mask.
You can also use the History Brush tool to paint a filter effect onto part of the image. First, apply the filter to an entire image. Next, step back in the History panel to the image state before the filter was applied, and set the history brush source to the filtered state by clicking in the well at the left side of the history state. Then paint the image.
Improving image quality and consistency: You can disguise faults, alter or enhance images, or create a relationship among images by applying the same effect to each. Use the Actions panel to record the steps you take to modify one image, and then apply this action to the other images.