Hey all!

It's me, Cherie. Just wanted to let you know about the fun digital challenge happening this week. It's all about using filters! You might be wondering what in the world a filter is. Think of it this way...in photography you can change the way a picture looks (brighter, redder, fuzzier)  by placing a filter over your lens. Photoshop filters are just the same, except you can do a whole lot more than just that. There are filters that can make your photos look like a charcoal sketch, a watercolor painting, or even add a funky neon light. The list goes on!

For my challenge, I chose to focus on my favorite and most frequently used filter. I always use the Sharpen filter on every single photo to give it a pop, enhance the color, or make eyes sparkle. I also use the Sharpen filter to enhance brushes if they seem a little blurry.

In this layout, I used the Unsharp Mask filter on the photo to brighten the colors a little and to make his eyes stand out. I also used the Sharpen filter to make the date stamp a little clearer.

Here's how in Photoshop:

Go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. A dialogue box will open for you to make selections. If I want to sharpen a high-resolution photo for printing I select Amount: 20%, Radius: 2 pixels, Threshold: 0. If I am sharpening a low-resolution photo for the web (like this one) I select Amount: 338%, Radius: 0.2 pixels, Threshold: 0. You can experiment with these numbers to get the effect that you like. 

Another tip for using the Sharpen filter with brushes: If you stamp a brush on your layout and it seems a little blurry, go to Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen and it will instantly give your brush a crisper look!

We'd love to have you join us over at the digi challenge, so go ahead and give your filtering skills a try and link up to the challenge so we can enjoy and learn!!