Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1451376
G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M 2 0 2 2 J U L Y G R A P H I C S P R O 2 5 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M 2 0 2 2 J U L Y G R A P H I C S P R O 2 5 Fig. 5: The Pinch filter is a typical example of the power of destructive filtering. image quality by changing the focus, or by smoothing transitions within an image. Constructive filters are the bread and butter of Photoshop filtering, the workhorses that are put to frequent, day-to-day use. Fig. 2 shows the effect of the Gaussian Blur filter used to soften the focus of a selected background. While the blur filters soften the contrast between pixels, the application of the sharpen filters do the opposite. ey increase the contrast of the edge pixels to provide a crisp more focused appear- ance. (Fig. 3) e Dust and Scratches filter, a primary retouching tool, globally finds a balance between abra- sions and surface textures to clean up unwanted debris on an image. (Fig. 4) DESTRUCTIVE FILTERS Now that the constructive filters have displayed their image-correcting prowess, it's time for a little fun. Destructive filters are an entirely different animal. eir purpose is to displace pixels, radically redistrib- uting image elements or colors. e special effects in the Distort, Pixelate, and Stylize submenus for example, take your precious pixels and shove them about with wild impunity. With these filters, you can turn images inside out, explode and reassemble them, or boil the life out of them, leaving you with an indigestible goo. Used with care, they can be useful friends; used unwisely, they'll turn on you viciously. ese filters are undoubtedly the cool members of the gang; they look good and offer a fun night out, but ultimately, they're not quite as responsible as the constructive filters. e Pinch filter is a typical example of the power of destructive filtering. (Fig. 5) Its interface is like those of its eight other siblings found in the Distort submenu: Displace, Polar Coordinates, Ripple, Shear, Spherize, Twirl, Wave, and ZigZag. ese filters present a dialog box that displays a preview of the results of the application of the filter in real time as the controls are manipulated. Unfortunately, the results are not displayed in the Image window. e preview display in the dialog box, however, is usually sufficient to gauge the effect. Fig. 3: The application of the sharpen filters increase the contrast of the edge pixels to provide a crisp, more focused appearance. Fig. 4: The Dust and Scratches filter finds a balance between abrasions and surface textures to clean up unwanted debris on an image.