A Unique Filter Effect with Barry Beckham

Barry Beckham took to digital photography in the early days when it was still considered a black art by many. He saw the potential of digital photography and the improvements it would bring and began using Photoshop back in the days when it was version 3. Barry has gone on to produce tutorials for many of the UK photography magazines as well as authoring a book for Photoshop Elements.

However, his main passion is creating high quality images using Photoshop and he has become quite an expert in the practical use of this software. He is now producing videos exclusively for ePhotozine.tv using Photoshop and PicturesToExe audio visual software.

Barry is also well know in audio visual circles for his stunning AV shows, many of which can be downloaded from his web site. Barry has lectured all around the UK where his practical skills are constantly in demand.

So, what is so difficult about applying filters that we need a tutorial to do it? The answer is nothing at all, if we want to get the same effect as 5 million other users of Photoshop or Elements. The trick is to try and come up with something different.
There are thousands of third party filters available for Photoshop, but most of them will not give you an improvement in your image. The filters will change the image, but often, not for the better. Many of these filters do not seem to take us any closer to the charm we are looking for.
In our view our images need preparation before adding filters and then those filters need to be added with some care and creativity. Here we demonstrate exactly what we mean and create an image that if printed onto matt paper has enough appeal and charm to makes people stop and take notice.
In this tutorial we are using just one filter of many that are available in the Alien Skin Snap Art set, so there is a lot more scope for yet more unique effects using other Snap Art Filters.