Blur filters

Soften a selection or an image. Blur filters are useful for retouching. They smooth transitions by averaging the pixels next to the hard edges of defined lines and shaded areas in an image.

Eliminate noise where significant color transitions occur in an image. Blur filters smooth transitions by averaging the pixels next to the hard edges of defined lines and shaded areas. The Blur More filter produces an effect three or four times stronger than that of the Blur filter.

Tip: To apply a Blur filter to the edges of a layer, be sure to deselect the Preserve Transparency option in the Layers palette.

Distort filters

Geometrically distort an image, creating 3D or other reshaping effects. Note that these filters can be very memory intensive.

The Displace filter shifts a selection using a color value from the displacement map - 0 is the maximum negative shift, 255 the maximum positive shift, and a gray value of 128 produces no displacement. If a map has one channel, the image shifts along a diagonal defined by the horizontal and vertical scale ratios. If the map has more than one channel, the first channel controls the horizontal displacement and the second channel controls the vertical displacement.

Glass

Makes an image appear as if it is being viewed through different types of glass. You can choose a glass effect or create your own glass surface as a Photoshop file and apply it. You can adjust scaling, distortion, and smoothness settings.

Ocean Ripple

Adds randomly spaced ripples to the image's surface, making the image look as if it were under water.

Polar Coordinates

Converts a selection from its rectangular to polar coordinates, and vice versa, according to a selected option. You can use this filter to create a cylinder anamorphosis - popular art form in the 18th century - in which the distorted image appears normal when viewed in a mirrored cylinder.

Twirl

Rotates a selection more sharply in the center than at the edges. Specifying an angle produces a twirl pattern.