Why some filters are disabled in Photoshop

Well, admittedly, filter is one of the best features available in Photoshop is filters, which enable us to create pretty cool effect like turning a photograph into a water color painting, a mosaic picture (not really "mosaic" in a sense, but more like pixelating it)...

However, you might be surprised when got into such situation, when many of the filter is not available anymore.

By default, this shouldn't happen, which mean some settings in Photoshop. But what is it ?

I also went through the same problem, and luckily, I found out why. So I will be sharing it with you today.

Well, the problem is actually the color mode. Normally, you would be in will have 8 bits per channel color, hich mean for each of the RGB (red, green, blue) color, you will get 2^8=256 degree, and combining them together in RGB will give you 2^24, approximately 16 million colors.

Meanwhile, there are 16 bits/channel and 32 bits/channel also, which makes your picture more "real", in a sense that it can represent more color.
However, this makes some of the filter unusable, as they are not designed to work with such number of color.

So, to get all your filter backs, just return to 8 bits mode. But beware that if you have constrains about coloring, then it might make your photo much more uglier than you expect

To change, simply go to menu Image -> Mode -> 8 bit / Channel , and you are done.

Hope it helps