Like a gazillion people I use photoshop to manipulate digital images.

In fact I use photoshop nearly every single day.

And you can do seriously cool stuff with photoshop. You could even use photoshop to create an image just like the one you see above with a screenshot of this website plastered onto a billboard …

Anyway, I am sure you already know about photoshop and the chances are you use it frequently, just like yours truly, to work with digital images.

But sometimes you just want to take a particular image and get a specific effect quickly. By “quickly” I mean within a few minutes not an hour or more fiddling with complex settings in Photoshop.

While you could use photoshop to create the effect in the picture above, I did not. I used something much much quicker.

Now there is a new website where you can create funny photo effects using pictures you upload that creates effects within 60 seconds.

It’s free and it has my approval.

Check this out. Here’s an example using a picture of me I took at the weekend:

Pretty cool right?

This would take you 5 minutes at least in photoshop, but it took me less than 15 seconds.

Here are 3 more examples that took me pretty much no time at all:

Just click this link to start creating similar effects pronto: funny photo effects.

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1 Quickly Access Related Tools

1. Hold alt and click on a particular tool’s icon to toggle related tools.

2 The Move Tool

1. Hold CTRL to access the Move tool at anytime.

3 Duplicate Current Layer

1. Hold CTRL and ALT to drag a duplicate of the current layer.

4 Use The Eyedropper Tool To Choose A Background Colour

1. With the Eyedropper tool (I) selected, hold ALT when selecting colours from the image window to change the document background color.

5 Access The Hand Tool

1. Hold the SPACE BAR to access the Hand tool (H).

6 Copy Colour Values To The Clipboard

1. With the Eyedropper tool (I) selected, right click on an image to reveal a menu.
2. Select Copy Color To Html.
3. The hexadecimanl value will then be on the clipboard ready to pasted wherever you choose.

7 Toggle Quickmask Mode

1. Simply press Q to toggle between Standard mode and Quickmask mode.

8 Quickly Increase/Decrease Brush Size

1. Press [ to increase the size of the active brush.
2. Press ] to decrease the size of the active brush.

9 Zoom In and Out Effectively

1. Press CTRL + to zoom in.
2. Press CTRL - to zoom out.

10 Access The Zoom Tool Menu

1. With the Zoom tool (Z) selected, right click on the image window to reveal the Zoom tool menu.
2. The menu includes the following options; Fit On Screen, Actual Pixels, Print Size, and Zoom In and Zoom Out.

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1 Colored Pencil

The colored pencil filter makes an image look as if it were drawn with colored pencils. Image edges are given a crosshatch appearance and the background color shows through the indivudual pencil strokes.

• Pencil Width: Changes the thickness of the pencil strokes.
• Stroke Pressure: Changes the intensity of the pencil strokes.
• Paper Brightness: Modifies the brightness of the paper underneath.

2 Cutout

The Cutout filer makes an image look as if it were made from cut-out pieces of paper.

• Number of Levels : Determines the number of layers of colored paper. The smaller the numbers the simpler the final image.
• Edge Simplicity : Simplifies image edges. The larger the values the simpler the images.
• Edge Fidelity : Sets the image edge precision. The larger the values the more detailed the edges.

3 Dry Brush

The Dry Brush filter paints the edges with a dry brush effect.

• Brush Size : The smaller the brush size, the more detailed the final image.
• Brush Detail : The higher the Brush Detail value, the more detailed the final image.
• Texture: The higher the value, the rougher the texture of the final image.

4 Film Grain

The Film Grain filter adds noise or small dots to an image.

• Grain: Sets the size of the noise. Larger values display more dots.
• Highlight Area : The higher the value, the more highlights there will be in the image.
• Intensity: A smaller number adds dots to the entire image. Larger values add dots only to darker parts of the image.

5 Fresco

The Fresco filter imitates the fresco painting style from the Renaissance period. It does this by painting an image with short dabs, creating a darker image than the original.

• Brush Size: Sets the size of the brush. The smaller the size, the more detailed the image.
• Brush Detail: Higher Brush Detail values create images that are more detailed.
• Texture: Higher texture values create rougher textures in the image.

6 Neon Glow

The Neon Glow filter adds glow effets to an image. The filter uses the foreground color from the Toolbox as well as the color in the Neon Glow dialog box. To apply this filter to a text layer, you need to choose "Layer > Rasterize" before applying the filter.

• Glow Size : A large Glow Size value colors the highlights with the glow color and the shadows with the foreground color. Small values work in the opposite way.
• Glow Brightness : When this is set to 0, the image is filled with the foreground color. Larger values create highlights using the glow color.
• Glow Color : Sets the highlight color for the image.

7 Paint Daubs

The Paint Daubs filter creates an oil painting effect.

• Brush Size: Smaller brushes create more detail in the image.
• Sharpness: Increasing the Sharpness creates more defined edges.
• Brush Type: Choose from Simple, Light, Rough, Dark Rough, Wide Sharpm Wide Blurry and Sparkle brushes.

8 Palette Knife

The Palette Knife filter creates the effect of a palette knife being used on the image.

• Stroke Size: The higher the value, the more colors bunch together in the image.
• Stroke Detail: The higher the value, the more detailed the resulting image.
• Softness: Alters the degree of smearing in the image.

9 Plastic Wrap

The Plastic Wrap filter creates the appearance that the image has been wrapped in transparent plastic.

• Highlight Strength: Determines the shine of the plastic.
• Detail: Changes the detail of the texture created by plastic.
• Smoothness: Sets the smoothness of the plastic wrap.

10 Poster Edges

The Poster Edges filter reduces the colors in the image and creates dark images.

• Edge Thickness : Determines thickness of the dark edges.
• Edge Intensity: Changes the number of dark edges.
• Posterization: A low value creates a high contrast image, while a high value creates an image with more tones.

11 Rough Pastels

The Rough Pastels filter gives the image the appearance of coloured pastel chalks on a textured background.

• Stroke Length : Higher values create more obvious chalk strokes.
• Stroke Detail : Higher values increase the contrast and color in an image.
• Texture: Choose from Brick, Burlap, Canvas, and Sandstone Textures. The Load Texture feature aloows you to load a saves *.psd file containing a texture.
• Scaling: Changes the size of the texture.
• Relief: Larger values create more depth in the texture, making it seem more embossed.
• Light: Set the direction of the light.
• Invert: Inverts the texture.

12 Smudge Stick

The Smudge Stick filter creates the appearance that the image was smeared before the paint dried.

• Stroke Length: Higher values increase the amount of smudging in the image.
• Highlight Area: Changes the amount of highlights in the image.
• Intensity: Higher values brighten the image and remove details from the highlights.

13 Sponge

The Sponge filter makes the image look as if it was sponged.

• Brush Size: Sets the size of the sponge.
• Definition: Sets the contrast.
• Smoothness: Larger values increase the sponging effect.

14 Underpainting

The Underpainting filter makes the image appear to have been painted on a textured background, giving it a softer focus.

• Brush Size: The smaller the brush size, the more detailed the image.
• Texture Coverage: Smaller values apply the texture to darker parts of the image. Larger valyes apply the texture to the whole image.
• Texture: Choose from Brick, Burlap, Canvas and Sanstone. The Load Texture feature allows you to load a saved *.psd file containing a texture.

14 Watercolor

The Watercolor filter creates a watercolor painting effect.

• Brush Detail: Higher values create a more detailed and smoother image.
• Show Intensity: Darkens the image.
• Texture: Higher values create less smooth images.

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1 Create A New Canvas

1. Create a new canvas with a black background layer at 500px x 500px.

2 Create Type Mask Text

1. Using the Horizontal Type Mask Tool create your desired text.

3 Fill The Text With White

1. Use the Paint Bucket Tool to fill the text with white.

4 Smudge The Text

1. Select the Smudge Tool.
2. Choose a medium thick brush with a size of around 35px.
3. Achieve a the smudged look by applying upward brush strokes on the text.

5 Colourize

1. Apply a Colour Balance adjustment layer.
2. In the three colour level input boxes at the top of the dialog box enter the following:
   • "90"(red), "0"(green), "-90"(blue) for the Shadows tone balance
   • "90"(red), "0"(green), "-90"(blue) for the Midtones tone balance
   • "90"(red), "0"(green), "-25"(blue) for the Highlights tone balance.

6 Add Blur

1. Select "Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur" enter a value of 2px.

7 Create The Neon Text Effect

1. Duplicate the background layer.
2. Apply an Exclusion layer blending mode to the duplicate layer.

8 Create Another Text Layer

1. Select the Horizontal Type Tool.
2. Create text that is identical in content and style to the type mask layer applied in step 2.
3. Position the text in accordance with the original text layer.

9 Add Text Glow

1. In layer blending options select Outer Glow and add the gradient to the Outer Glow of your choice.

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1 Hide The Palettes

Press SHIFT + TAB to hide the palettes.

2 Hide The Palettes and The Toolbar

Press TAB to hide the palettes and the toolbar.

3 Snap Palettes To The Nearest Screen Edge

Press Shift then Click on the palette title bars, to snap the palettes to the nearest screen edge.

4 Launch An Open Dialog Box Quickly

DOUBLE CLICK anywhere on Photoshop's background to quickly launch the Open File dialog box.

5 Change The Canvas Background Colour

Select the Paint tool and press Shift then Click to fill the canvas background with a specific colour.

6 Quickly Switch Between Different Screen Views

Press F to cycle through different full screen views.

7 Change The Colour Spectrum

Press Shift then Click on the colour ramp to change the colour spectrum.

8 Keep The Zoom Field Active

Press Shift + Enter after entering zoom values to keep the zoom field active.

9 Reveal The Full Document Path

Pause your Mouse Cursor over an image window's titlebar to reveal the full path of the current document.

10 Quickly Access Image Options

Right Click on an image window's titlebar to access features such as Canvas Size, Image Size and Duplicate.

1 Create A New Canvas

1. Create a new canvas that is 500px x 500px.
2. Create a black background layer.

2 Create The Text

1. Use the Type Tool to create some text.
2. I used the font "Verdana" at "100pt".

3 Rasterize The Type Layer and Select

1. Rasterize the Text Layer by going to Layer > Rasterize > Type.
2. Select the rasterized text layer by clicking on the layer in the layers palette while holding the ctrl button on your keyboard.

4 Apply Brush Strokes

1. Select brush number 27 at a 27px diameter.
2. Splatter some brush strokes on the text in a random pattern.

5 Apply The Craquelure, Grain and Sharpen Filters

1. Apply the Craquelure filter using the settings above.
2. Apply the Grain filter using the settings above.
3. Apply the Sharpen filter, from the Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen filter menu.

Observe the finished Grunge text.

Produce a 3D Security Padlock icon like the one above: Watch the video below and check out the step by step instructions.

1. 1 Create A New Canvas

   

   1. Create a new canvas that is 500px x 500px.
   2. Ensure rulers and extras are visible.
   3. Ensure ruler measurements are set to pixels.

2. 2 Set The Guides

   

   1. Set up horizontal guides as shown in the above image.
   2. Set up vertical guides as shown in the above image.

3. 3 Create The Padlock

   

   

   

   1. Draw 3 rectangles with the Rectangle Tool using the guides as a reference.
   2. Make the middle rectangle a shade darker than the other two.
   3. Go to Edit > Transform > Distort and adjust the corners of the first rectangle and do the same for the rectangle furthest to the right.
   4. Using the Pen Tool fill combine points using the guides as a reference so that the padlock has a background. Make this the lightest shade of colour on the padlock.

4. 4 Decoration

   

   

   

   1. Creae a new layer
   2. Using the polygonal lasso tool (and the shift key to draw straight lines), draw a line as showvn in the above images.
   3. Fill the line with white.
   4. Duplicate the line layer twice and place the line layers as shown above

5. 5 Create The Lock

   
   1. Using the Horizontal Type Tool, type in the letter 'U'. I used the font, Trebuchet MS and size 200pt.
   2. Flip the text layer vertically, go to Edit > Transform > Flip Vertical.
   3. Create a new layer.
   4. Using the Eliptical Marquee Tool, draw an elipse where the lock will meet the base as shown in the above images.
   5. Fill the eliptical selection with the same colour used on the 'U'.
   6. Create another elipse layer below the other side of the 'U'.

6. 6 The Metal Effect

   

   

   

   

   

   1. Apply the above blending modes to the 'U' created in step 5.
   2. Save the blending mode settings used for the 'U' text using the "New Style" button in the layer style dialog box.
   3. Apply the saved layer style to the elipse layers above.
   4. Ensure that the 'U' layer is places above the elipse layers in terms of layer priority.

   Observe the finished 3D security padlock created in Photoshop. How easy was that?

   

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1 Create a new document thats is 500px x 500px.

2 Ensure the rulers are on (press CTRL + R) and set the measurements to 'pixels' - do this by right clicking on the rukers and tick 'pixels'.

3 Draw rulers on the canvas to create two rectangular shapes.

4 Create two folders in the layers paletts, "side" and "front" to hold the different layers for each side of the box.

5 Create the artwork for the front and side of your box.

6 Merge the layers of each folder ("side" and "front") to create two individual layers for each side of the box.

7 Move the side of the box, so that it meets with the front of the box.

8 Select "Distort" from the "Transform" section of the "Edit" menu and move the top left corner of the front part of the box downward by 50 pixels and move the bottom left corner upwards by 50 pixels.

9 Select "Distort" from the "Transform" section of the "Edit" menu and move the top right corner of the side of the box downward by 50 pixels and move the bottom right corner upwards by 50 pixels.

10 Observe the finished 3D box in Photoshop. How quick, easy, and painless was that?