Getting Organic with the Sketch Filters

In true Adobe fashion, the Sketch filter submenu contains a few filters that don’t really belong there. That’s because many of these filters were acquired from Aldus Corporation (now defunct), and Adobe had to shoehorn them into the organizational structure of Photoshop. But no matter, they work nonetheless. If you were to encounter a picture of Rodin’s Thinker, you might be tempted to sketch the famous sculpture by using one of the filters found by choosing Filter➪Sketch. Perhaps a Conté Crayon effect or a Graphic Pen and Ink look would be nice. But the Sketch submenu also includes other artistic effects, such as the Note Paper look, a halftone screen, chalk and charcoal, and even a bas relief effect that turns flat images into a Rodin-like sculpture. You’ll also want to experiment with these other Sketch filters (again, find them at Filter➪Sketch):
- Chrome creates a polished chrome effect. Use the Levels adjustment to add more contrast if necessary.
- Photocopy gives that infamous, anachronistic look (dating back from the days when photocopiers didn’t do a very good job of reproducing halftone images). Creates areas of black and white with little gray value.
- Plaster creates a look that resembles molten plastic more than it looks like plaster. The filter uses the foreground and background values to color the image.
- Stamp mimics a rubber or wood stamp (not very sketch-like, indeed!).
- Reticulation adds texture by reproducing a veritable photographic disaster: The wrinkling of film emulsion that occurs when you move film from one developing chemical to another that has an extreme difference in temperature (think hot developer followed by a bath in cold water!). The highlights look grainy while the shadow areas look thick and goopy.
- Torn Edges creates the look of ragged paper and colorizes the image, using the foreground and background colors.
- Water Paper creates the look of paint-like daubs on fibrous wet paper.

Even if the Sketch filters don’t all produce sketchy effects, they do have one thing in common: They give your images an organic look that’s decidedly non-computerish. You’ll find lots of techniques for creating nice, neat round drops of water by using Photoshop. Unless you’ve just waxed your car and expect a rain shower within moments, however, perfectly beaded water droplets can be fairly rare in real life. Instead, you’re likely to encounter some sloppy drops and driblets any time liquid splashes onto a formerly dry surface.

This technique simulates that look. You could use it to add sparkling water drops to a flower, create a wet-look texture for artistic effect, or add a three-dimensional trompe l’oeil (“fools the eye”) optical illusion. After you create water drops by using this Putting-It-Together project, experiment with different ways of applying them to images.
1. Open a plain, old, dry-looking photograph in Photoshop.
I’m using a flower photograph, which will look great wet.
2. Press D to make sure you have the foreground and background colors in Photoshop set to the default values of black and white.
3. Choose Window➪Channels, click the palette menu, and then choose Create New Channel.
This creates a new alpha channel for the water droplets.
4. In the Color Indicates area of the New Channel dialog box, select the Selected Areas radio button, and set Opacity to 100%.
5. Select Filter➪Render➪Clouds to create a motley cloud effect to use as the basis for your random water droplets.
6. Choose Image-->Adjustments-->Threshold, and then move the slider to create black blotches that will become water droplets.
I used a value of 83, but, because the Clouds filter produces random results, you may find that a different value works better for you.
7. Choose Filter-->Blur-->Gaussian Blur and move the Radius slider enough to blur the jagged edges of the droplets.
I used a value of 3.8 pixels.
8. Choose Filter-->Sharpen-->Unsharp Mask and adjust the Amount and Radius sliders to firm up the edges of the droplets.
I found that an Amount of 85% and a Radius of about 46 creates softedged, but distinct water droplets.
9. Ctrl+click (Ô+click on the Mac) on the new channel in the Channels palette to load the selection that you’ve created.
10. Click the RGB Channel in the Channels palette to return to your full-color picture.
The droplets appear as selections.
11. Choose Layer-->New-->Layer via Copy to create a new layer for the droplets to reside in.
12. Choose Layer-->Layer Style and select Bevel and Emboss.
The bevel/embossing effect adds a third dimension to the drops. You can experiment with the depth and size controls to get the exact effect you want. I used the Inner Bevel style, set to the Smooth Technique in the Structure area of the dialog box. I used the sliders to increase the size of the bevel to 27 pixels, and softened the edges by 11 pixels.
13. If you like, you can choose Image-->Adjustments-->Brightness/Contrast and move the brightness slider to the left to darken the droplets against their background.
The final image looks like a print that has been drenched with liquid.