One of the things that makes Photoshop and similar applications such a handy tool is the diversity of all the endless array of various add-on filters. One of my favorites is Eye Candy which gives a good bang for the buck!! Personally I couldn't do without it because it's something I have really gotten used to having as part of my Photoshop. Anyone else like to comment on any particular filter that you feel really stands out from the crowd?? ~3DSprite:-)

Well, I have to agree with 3D Sprite in that Eye Candy is probably the one I use the most because it has such a variety of effects and can be tweaked and adjusted to do just about anything. Another one that I find extremely handy to use with Photoshop is Extensis Mask Pro. It really does a nice job on masking, even down to the tiniest hairs. It rocks! Marybeth

To see Diane's and 3DSprite's favorite filter, check out the message under the Adobe Photoshop forum titled "May I also offer a warm welcome to all Adobe Photoshop users..." You can see what some of the filters can do. I love Eyecandy as well, but the Aetherize filter I downloaded at is my favorite filter. I love the dreamy look to it.

WOW!! Wait a second, sorry 3DSprite. I didn't know you were the one who wrote the message. I think you already know your favorite filters.

Xenofex (Eye candy's big brother) and Paint Engine (hard to find freebie) are tied for my faves at the moment (although Plastic Wrap is alot of fun :) Xenofex has those cool lighting plugins :) -Trav

Extensis Photo Mask, and Tools.. KPT 3 and 6 ,KPT Convolver Axion flare

I vote for KPT 3 and KPT Convolver, too. At least those are the ones I use the most! As far as my favorite effects, well, read the other post! LOL Diane

heyas; not only kpt3 (what would i do without sharpen intensity!?), but kpt2's fractal explorer and texture explorer. (which i wish were actually included on the kpt3 cd as they were purported to be, but that's a long story....) but i think the coolest thing to hit the pike in a long time is flaming pear's blade pro. it's kinda specialized.... the closest thing that comes to it is painter 5's bevel world, because it does make bevels and 'web buttons.' but the sheer variety of effects it can do has to be seen to be believed. you can try out the demo; it is for both mac and pc. http://www.flamingpear.com/

heya; thanks soooo much bloodsong :-)

My vote goes to Convolver, KPT3 & 5 (haven't bought KPT 6 yet). Has anybody ever used the displacement filter? It takes a bit of experimenting (and LOTS of memory), but I have used it to map a scanned pattern onto a dress in a 2D picture and the result looked real because it actualy molded the pattern to the folds in the dress. I isloated a copy of the dress to a seperate layer and turned it into a greyscale, then copied to the clipboard and dropped it into a new file and saved it. With the pattern I scanned selected, I intitialized the displacement filter and gave it the greyscale file name I had just saved. When it was finished, the patten was warped to the shape of the dress in the greyscale file. After trimming away unused portions of the pattern, I selected and saved to the clipboard and pasted it into the original picture on top of the dress, using multiply to pick up the shading from the original. Voila! I don't use it often, but I think it's one of the coolest filters I've ever seen...

Thank you for you input jnmoore, and everyone else!! It is all so much appreciated!! Anyone else?? We can never, ever learn enough about all the various filters and all the wonderful things they do!! ~3DSprite

Just for kicks, try out the Polar Coordinates filter: Make a new document with the width and depth the same and a white background. About a third of the way down, draw a horizontal line across the image. Now apply the Polar Coordinates filter using "Rectangular to Polar". You should end up with a circle centered perfectly in the document. This may not seem like much, but it can be used for all kinds of special effects. For instance, before applying the P.C. filter, apply a wave filter with 1 sinewave generator and a wavelength which divides equally into the width of your document (i.e., if your doc is 256 pixels wide, use 32 as your wavelength) amplitude set to the same as your wavelength and horizontal amount set to 0% with vertical set to 100%. This should result in a wave which tiles perfectly horizontally. Apply your P.C. filter and you get a wavy starburst. I have used this filter to make Celtic knotwork tattoos from straight sections of Celtic braid. You can take anything in a straight line and make it curve around into a circle. I think this is the least appreciated filter in the whole Photoshop package. Your thoughts?