Freeware Friday: The Filter Factory Page At PhotoshopFilters.com

Filters can be overdone sometimes, but when you need a special effect they often come in very handy. PhotoshopFilters.com is a great resource for all kinds of filters, from the useful to the superfluous.

PhotoshopFilters.com has a great section called The Filter Factory with all kinds of free filters. The page mentions that the Filter Factory is a filter-making application that comes with Photoshop, though I’ve never heard of it and not seen it (if anyone has more info on the Filter Factory, please post what you know here!).

Selecting a batch of filters to download actually takes you to this page, which is not as well-designed as PhotoshopFilters.com but the downloads are easy to find and there are links for both PC and Mac downloads. PhotoshopFilters.com has screenshots of all the filters in action, so this is where you want to be.

Some of my favorite filters include:

• Gunsite (Gallery A, Filter 2): Put your subject in the crosshairs of a gun. Mac or PC.
• Pool Shadow (Gallery A, Filter 9): Add the wavy shadows found in pools of water. Mac or PC.
• Crystal Ball (Gallery B, Filter 6): Put your subject in a crystal ball. Mac or PC.
• Zebra Fan (Gallery E, Filter 20): Similar to a black-and-white Radial Blur, creating stripes radiating from the center. Mac or PC.
• Xaggerate (Gallery G, Filter 19): Similar to the Wave filter, but with a lot more texture. Mac or PC.
• Alias Blur (Gallery H, Filter 1): Knock your image’s resolution down to only a few pixels per inch. This filter seems to do it better than the Mosaic filter. Mac or PC.
• Melting Pot (Gallery H, Filter 6): Literally “melts” your image into streaks of light and dark. Mac or PC.
• Blast ‘Em Blur (Gallery J, Filter 1): Blurs and adds noise at the same time, creating a textured blur. Mac or PC.