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Credits This User Guide, and the software described in it, is furnished under an end user License Agreement, which is included with the product. The agreement specifies the permitted and prohibited uses. Trademarks Serif is a registered trademark of Serif (Europe) Ltd. PhotoPlus is a registered trademark of Serif (Europe) Ltd. All Serif product names are trademarks of Serif (Europe) Ltd. Microsoft, Windows and the Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
This product includes Radiance software (http://radsite.lbl.gov/) developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (http://www.lbl.gov/). ©2010 Serif (Europe) Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this User Guide may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Serif (Europe) Ltd. Serif PhotoPlus X4 ©2010 Serif (Europe) Ltd. All rights reserved. Companies and names used in samples are fictitious.
Contents 1. Welcome ............................................................ 1 Welcome to PhotoPlus X4 .................................................................................. 3 PhotoPlus and AlbumPlus Organizer: a powerful combination......... 3 Registration ............................................................................................................... 3 New features .............................................................................................................
Table of Contents 4. Image Adjustments and Effects ...................... 49 Introduction to image adjustments .............................................................51 Overview: Adjusting image colors ................................................................51 Using adjustment layers ....................................................................................54 Retouching ..............................................................................................................
Table of Contents 6. Painting and Drawing..................................... 121 Color concepts .................................................................................................... 123 Choosing colors.................................................................................................. 124 Painting .................................................................................................................. 128 Stamping and spraying pictures ...............................
Table of Contents 11. Printing and Exporting ................................... 191 Printing .................................................................................................................. 193 Publishing a PDF file......................................................................................... 201 Exporting to another file format ................................................................. 203 Sharing documents by email......................................................
Table of Contents 14. AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos 253 Searching for photos ........................................................................................ 255 Searching by tag ................................................................................................ 255 Searching by media type................................................................................ 258 Searching by rating....................................................................................
Table of Contents
1 Welcome
2 Welcome
Welcome 3 Welcome to PhotoPlus X4 Welcome to PhotoPlus X4 from Serif—more than ever, the best value in image creation and editing software for any home, school, organization, or growing business. PhotoPlus is the number one choice for working with photographs and paint-type images, whether for the web, multimedia, or the printed page. PhotoPlus has the features you’ll need...
4 Welcome New features Effects and Adjustments Non-destructive Image Adjustments! (p. 60) Preserve your original image layer by creating filter layers directly after PhotoFix adjustments. For different adjustments on areas of your image, create one or more masks—each mask storing its own set of editable adjustments! Now use improved help-assisted Red Eye, Straighten, Crop, and Spot Repair tools for easy retouching. Save individual or multiple adjustments as favorites for future use.
Welcome 5 Modify Selection with Preview Feather, Smooth, Contract, and Expand your selection in combination, from one location. Preview your current settings on the page. Design Quick-and-easy Cutouts (p. 114) Image Cutout Studio makes light work of cutting out parts of your active layer. Use brushes to discard uniform backgrounds (sky, walls, backdrops) or keep subjects of interest (people or objects). Selection Power—by Brush! (p. 99) Create selection areas defined by your laid-down brush strokes.
6 Welcome Existing features PhotoPlus power Professional Input and Output Options Import an impressive selection of graphic files, including raw images from all the major manufacturers' cameras (and many more...). Support for Photoshop® (.
Welcome 7 selections between any open file. Use combination buttons (as for shapes) to define cutout selection regions. Convert selections into paths. Crop to Common Print Sizes Use the Crop Tool for easy cropping to different portrait and landscape preset and custom print sizes—print resolution will auto-adjust to honour any print size. Special Erase Options Need to remove that blue sky and leave the clouds? Use the Flood Eraser to fill the blue regions with transparency.
8 Welcome Gradient Fills Take your pick of radial, linear, conical, or square fills—perfect for masking, to hide or reveal parts of your photo using smooth graduated blends to transparency. One master dialog allows editing of five gradient fill types combining both color and transparency. Choose from a built-in gallery of presets, add your own categories and fills. (Of course, there's standard flood fill as well.
Welcome 9 Text Editable Text Add formatted color text directly onto your image, reposition and scale it by dragging. Text layers keep the contents separate so you can go back and edit selected areas of text or adjust formatting (color, transparency, etc.) at any time! Effects Filter Gallery The distort, blur, edge, sharpen, render and stylistic effects can be applied singularly or in combination within a Filter Gallery...
10 Welcome Versatile Deform and Warp Tools The "Swiss Army Knife" of image tools, the Deform Tool lets you rotate, resize, skew, reshape, or add perspective to any selection or layer. Warp tools pull, stretch, and distort image details, or shrink and enlarge. Pixels turn to putty with the Mesh Warp Tool! Merge Bracketed Photos Use HDR (High Dynamic Range) Merge to bring together same-shot photos, each taken at different exposure settings.
Welcome 11 Retouching Clone, Smudge, and Erase tools are included as essential retouch tools. Use the PhotoFix’s Blemish Remover to subtly remove skin blemishes and unwanted light reflections—all via blending.
12 Welcome Animation Tools It's easy and fun to create or edit animations for the web. You can import and export animated GIFs, apply special effects (including 2D and 3D), tweening, even let PhotoPlus create entire animations for you automatically. Or export to the .AVI format for movies and multimedia! Convert to Animation makes the process of taking any image into animation mode a breeze! Print and Share Easy Printing Print your project with powerful scaling and tiling options.
Welcome 13 Installation Minimum: Windows-based PC with DVD/CD drive and mouse (main processor must support SSE2 instructions) Microsoft Windows® XP* SP2 (32 bit), Windows® Vista, or Windows® 7 operating system 512MB RAM 276MB free hard disk space; 480MB with AlbumPlus Organizer installed. 1024 x 600 monitor resolution * Requires Microsoft Windows Imaging Component. Additional disk resources and memory are required when editing large and/or complex images.
14 Welcome
2 Getting Started
16 Getting Started
Getting Started 17 Startup Wizard Once PhotoPlus has been installed, you're ready to start! The Setup routine during install adds a Serif PhotoPlus X4 entry to the Windows Start menu. Use the Windows Start button to pop up the Start Menu, click on All Programs and then click the PhotoPlus item. On program launch, the Startup Wizard is displayed which offers different routes into PhotoPlus: Create a New Image (or New Animation), to start from scratch.
18 Getting Started Use the Choose Workspace drop-down menu to choose your workspace appearance (i.e., Studio tab positions, tab sizes, and show/hide tab status). You can adopt the default workspace profile , the last used profile , a range of pre-defined profile, or a custom workspace profile you've previously saved. As you click on different profiles from the menu, your workspace will preview each tab layout in turn.
Getting Started 19 To create a new image or animation (using Startup Wizard) : 1. The first time you launch PhotoPlus, you'll see the Startup Wizard, with a menu of choices. Click New Image or New Animation. 2. In the New Image dialog, you can either: 1. For a preset canvas size, select a suitable Category from the dropdown list. Categories are named according to how your image or animation is intended to be used, e.g. pick a Photo category for photosized canvases. 2.
20 Getting Started To create a new picture or animation (during your session): New on the Standard toolbar. 1. If the Startup Wizard is disabled, click 2. In the New Image dialog, set your canvas size (see above) and then check Animation to create an animation or leave unchecked for a picture. 3. Click OK. The new image or animation opens in a separate untitled window. Opening an existing file You can use the Startup Wizard to access files recently viewed in PhotoPlus or any file on your computer.
Getting Started 2. 21 Click the file name to open it. PhotoPlus opens the image as a maximized currently active document; the document appears in the Documents tab. Recently viewed files also appear at the bottom of the File menu. Simply select the file name to open it. To open any image file: 1. From the Startup Wizard (at startup time or via File>New...), click Open.... OR Click Open on the Standard toolbar. 2. In the Open dialog, select the folder and file name.
22 Getting Started Opening a raw image High-specification SLR digital cameras give the option of saving your photos as JPG, and more recently, as raw files. On some cameras, you may have the best of both worlds, by saving as both simultaneously. Quite why you would choose one format over the other depends on a host of factors, such as the type of workflow and the level of detail you want to work to. This is best summarized in the following table.
Getting Started 23 Workflow refers to the shoot-to-print progress when working with JPG or raw files. A JPG workflow is destructive, in that your JPG file is "developed" in your camera without user intervention. Conversely, a raw workflow is nondestructive because your raw file is "undeveloped"—you can control your image's development within your photo-editing program (PhotoPlus). PhotoPlus's Raw Studio offers post-shoot adjustments to your raw file without affecting the original file.
24 Getting Started Once you click OK you won't be able to undo your adjustments—it's therefore recommended to spend time "developing" your image correctly before exiting Raw Studio. Once you've exited Raw Studio you'll enter the usual PhotoPlus user interface. As for any other file format you can then optionally add text, lines, shapes, and apply some creative filter effects (not all effects are available in 16 bits/channel mode). On saving (File>Save or File>Save As...
Getting Started 25 4. Drag the Black Point slider right to set the darkest parts of the image to black (by shifting the histogram's left-most edge, making all "clipped" pixels in the shadow region turn black). 5. For recovery of blown highlights, from the Mode drop-down menu choose Recovery, and if needed, increase the Strength slider until you get ideal results. The Clip option, as default, means that highlights remain blown (no recovery is attempted).
26 Getting Started Getting images from cameras and scanners If your digital camera or scanner supports the industry-wide TWAIN standard, you can bring pictures from these devices directly into PhotoPlus. To set up your TWAIN device for importing: See the documentation supplied with the device for operating instructions. To import a TWAIN image: 1. (via Startup Wizard) Choose Import From Twain. OR (During your PhotoPlus session) Choose Import from the File menu, then select Acquire. 2.
Getting Started 27 An intermediate HDR image can be saved, which stores the results of an HDR Photo Merge in an hdr file for future use. See Merging bracketed photos (p. 84) for more information. To save your PhotoPlus Picture (.Spp): Click the Save button on the Standard toolbar. OR To save under a different path or base name, choose Save As... from the File menu. The window title bar is updated accordingly.
28 Getting Started
3 Layers and Masks
30 Layers and Masks
Layers and Masks 31 Basics of using layers If you're accustomed to thinking of pictures as flat illustrations in books, or as photographic prints, the concept of image layers may take some getting used to. In fact, layers are hardly unique to electronic images. The emulsion of photographic film has separate layers, each sensitive to a different color—and we've all noticed multiple-image depth effects like store window reflections or mirrored interiors.
32 Layers and Masks You can create any number of new layers in your image. Each new one appears on top of the currently active layer, comprising a stack that you can view and manipulate with the Layers tab. We call these additional layers standard layers to differentiate them from the Background layer. Standard layers behave like transparent sheets through which the underlying layers are visible. In the example on p.
Layers and Masks 33 preview), while the Background layer does not. A couple of examples will show how this rule is applied in PhotoPlus: Suppose you are creating a new image. The New Image dialog provides three choices for Background: White, Background Color, and Transparent. If you pick White or Background Color, the Layers tab shows a single layer in the new image named "Background.
34 Layers and Masks depth maps, creating animation frames, or masking, only work with standard layers. Once an image has more than just a background layer, the layer information can only be preserved by saving the image in the native PhotoPlus (.SPP) format. Multiple layers are merged when you export an image to a standard "flat" bitmap format (e.g., .PNG). It’s best to save your work-in-progress as .SPP files, and only export to a different file format as the final step.
Layers and Masks The layer. 35 Add Layer Mask button adds a mask to the currently selected The Add Layer Depth Map button creates a depth map for the selected layer. The Add Layer Effects button creates a 2D or 3D effect on the layer. Right-click to copy/paste, clear or hide effects. To remove one or more selected layers, click the Delete Layer button on the Layers tab. Hidden layers can also be deleted without prior selection by using Delete>Hidden Layers.
36 Layers and Masks To control layer content: To select all layer content use Select>Select All or Ctrl+A. To select nontransparent regions on a layer, Ctrl-click on a layer thumbnail. Use Invert to selection transparent regions. To move layer content, select one or more layers containing the content to be moved (from the Layers tab), then drag with the Move Tool with no selection area present (press Ctrl+D to remove any selection).
Layers and Masks 37 Using layer groups For greater management and efficiency it is possible to place selected layers into a created group. There are many reasons why you might want to use groups in addition to layers. Here are a few... To create a self-contained group of layers which are all related, e.g. all the Retouch layers used in your photo. To collect layers together which make up a specific photo feature, e.g. the beach components of a seaside shot.
38 Layers and Masks To add one or more layers to a Layer Group: Select the layer(s) you want to add to the group and drag onto the group name (a red line indicates where the layer is to be placed). The layer(s) will then appear indented under the group. Alternatively, you can select multiple layers and add them to a new unnamed group by selecting either New Layer Group from Selected Layers or Group Layers on the Layers menu.
Layers and Masks 39 As a property of individual layers, a layer's blend mode determines how each pixel on that layer visibly combines with those on layers below. (Because there are no layers below the Background layer, it can't have a blend mode.) Note that changing a layer's blend mode property doesn't actually alter the pixels on the layer—so you can create different blend mode effects after creating the image content, then merge layers when you've achieved the result you want.
40 Layers and Masks Adjusting opacity/transparency Varying opacity is rather like lighting a gauze backdrop in a theater: depending on how light falls on it, it can be rendered either visible or invisible, or in between. Fully opaque pixels contribute their full color value to the image. Fully transparent pixels are invisible: they contribute nothing to the image. Inbetween pixels are called semi-transparent.
Layers and Masks 41 To set a layer's opacity: Select the layer in the Layers tab and adjust the Opacity setting at the top of the tab—either enter a percentage Opacity value directly or use the slider (click the option's right arrow button). To read the opacity values of pixels on the active layer: 1. Select the Color Pickup Tool from the Tools toolbar and move it around the image. 2. Read the value shown for "O" (Opacity) on the Hintline (e.g., O:40%).
42 Layers and Masks You can also combine depth maps with pre-defined 3D effects hosted in the Instant Effects tab (if you can't see it, switch on via Window>Studio Tabs) to create fascinating surfaces and textures—simply click on a thumbnail from one of the tab's categorized galleries with your layer containing the depth map selected, e.g. Elements Fire Storm Abstract Plasma Stone Polished Stone To create a depth map: 1. Select the layer (or group) in the Layers tab and click Depth Map.
Layers and Masks 43 While working on the layer, you can switch back and forth between the bitmap, depth map, and (optional) mask by clicking the appropriate layer thumbnail. For a layer filled with green pixels: depth map selected bitmap selected You can also switch the depth map off and on to assess its contribution to the image, or subtract it for creative reasons. To switch the depth map off and on: Shift-click its preview thumbnail, next to the layer name.
44 Layers and Masks Importing a depth map Another way of incorporating a depth map is to create a suitable bitmap image separately (or borrow one from somewhere else) and then paste it via the Clipboard into an existing PhotoPlus depth map (depth map thumbnail selected).
Layers and Masks 45 Each non-Background layer can have one mask at any given time. (The Background layer can’t have one because it doesn’t support transparency.) Mask information, like layer information, can only be preserved by saving the image in the native PhotoPlus (.SPP) format. Masking can also be applied to adjustment and effect filters, where you can isolate regions (e.g., an image background) to which you want a filter to be applied. (See Using filter masks on p. 44).
46 Layers and Masks Choose Mask>Add Mask from the Layers menu and then one of the following from the submenu: • Reveal All for a transparent mask over the whole layer • Hide All for an opaque mask over the whole layer • Reveal Selection for an opaque mask with transparent "holes" over the selected region(s) • Hide Selection for a transparent mask with opaque "blocks" over the selected region(s) On the Layers tab, a mask preview thumbnail appears, confirming that a mask exists.
Layers and Masks 47 To edit the active layer's mask: Click the mask thumbnail, or check Edit Mask on the Layers menu. In Edit Mask mode, you're normally viewing not the mask, but rather the effects of changes "as if" you were making them on the layer below. Adding a Reveal All mask can be a bit confusing, because there's initially no evidence the mask is there at all (i.e.
48 Layers and Masks A click on this button will unlink the layer and mask, changing the button to display a red cross through it; you can also right click the mask preview thumbnail to link/unlink. By selecting the layer or mask thumbnail, you can then drag the layer or mask on the page, respectively. After fine-tuning, click the button to relink the mask to the layer.
4 Image Adjustments and Effects
50 Image Adjustments and Effects
Image Adjustments and Effects 51 Introduction to image adjustments A major part of photo-editing is making corrections (i.e., adjustments) to your own near-perfect images. Whether you’ve been snapping with your digital camera or you've just scanned a photograph, at some point you may need to call on PhotoPlus’s powerful photo-correction tools to fix some unforeseen problems. For photo-correction, several methods can be adopted.
52 Image Adjustments and Effects Here’s a summary of the available PhotoPlus image adjustments. Levels displays a histogram plot of lightness values in the image, from which you can adjust the tonal range by shifting dark, light, and gamma values. Curves displays lightness values in the image using a line graph, and lets you adjust points along the curve to fine-tune the tonal range. Color Balance lets you adjust color and tonal balance for general color correction in the image.
Image Adjustments and Effects 53 Lens Filter adjusts the color balance for warming or cooling down your photos. It digitally mimics the placement of a filter on the front of your camera lens. Threshold creates a monochromatic (black and white) rendering. You can set the threshold, i.e. the lightness or gray value above which colors are inverted. Equalize evenly distributes the lightness levels between existing bottom (darkest) and top (lightest) values.
54 Image Adjustments and Effects Using adjustment layers Adjustment layers are recommended for applying image adjustments experimentally and non-destructively to your image. An adjustment layer is created by selecting an adjustment from the Adjustments tab. As its name suggests, an adjustment layer is considered a layer so it will appear in the Layers tab on creation.
Image Adjustments and Effects 55 Color Balance: Adjust color and tonal balance for general color correction in the image. Brightness/Contrast: Vary brightness and/or contrast. Hue/Saturation/Lightness: Vary hue, saturation, and/or lightness values, or colorize an image. Selective Color: Add or subtract a certain percentage of cyan, magenta, yellow, and/or black ink. Channel Mixer: Modify a color channel using a mix of the current color channels.
56 Image Adjustments and Effects 2. In the Layers tab, the new adjustment layer is inserted above the active layer. The adjustment is applied to all underlying layers. 3. From the Adjustments tab, change the applied adjustment layer's settings to suit your requirements. For example, for a levels adjustment: To modify an adjustment layer: 1. Click the adjustment layer's name in the Layers tab. 2. From the Adjustments tab, modify the applied adjustment layer's settings.
Image Adjustments and Effects 57 To delete an adjustment layer: (via Layers tab) Select the adjustment layer and click OR Delete Layer. (via Adjustments tab) Select the adjustment and click Delete Layer. This removes the last applied adjustment layer, so be careful not to remove additional adjustment layers in the Layers tab by clicking multiple times. To access layer properties for an adjustment layer: Right-click the layer name and choose Properties....
58 Image Adjustments and Effects Dodge Tool - for lightening an area Burn Tool - for darkening an area Sponge Tool - for increasing or decreasing the color saturation under the brush Replace Color Tool - for swapping one color for another On the Blemish Tools flyout: Blemish Remover - for intelligently painting out skin blemishes Scratch Remover - for filling in small gaps or dropouts in an image Patch Tool - for painting out selected areas Straightening a photo As an image adjustment, the Straighten To
Image Adjustments and Effects 59 You can straighten using one of two methods: As a separate tool used directly on your image (below) or via the PhotoFix studio environment (see p. 60). To straighten (via Straighten Tool): 1. Choose the Straighten Tool from the the Tools Toolbar. Crop Tools flyout on 2. On the Context toolbar, choose an option from the Canvas drop-down list.
60 Image Adjustments and Effects Using PhotoFix PhotoFix provides an image adjustment environment within PhotoPlus which simplifies the often complicated process of image correction. The studio environment offers the following key features: Adjustment filters Apply tonal, color, lens, and sharpening filters. Retouching filters Apply red-eye correction, spot repair, straightening, and cropping.
Image Adjustments and Effects 61 PhotoFix also lets you compare before-and-after previews, with tiled- and splitscreen controls (horizontally and vertically). Use pan and zoom control for moving around your picture. Adjustments overview Adjustments are made available to the right of the main window from the Filters section. Here's a quick overview of all the adjustments hosted in PhotoFix, some tool-based and some available as filters.
62 Image Adjustments and Effects Straighten Re-aligns slightly or wildly crooked photos by resetting the image's horizon, then applying an auto-crop. See supporting PhotoFix help for more details. Filter-based: White Balance "Cool down" or "warm up" your photo by adjusting lighting either by selecting presets or customizing temperature/tint combinations. Lighting Simple adjustments to a photo's exposure, brightness, contrast, shadows, and highlights. Curves Correct the tonal range of a photo, i.e.
Image Adjustments and Effects 63 To apply an adjustment (from a favorites preset): 1. From the Favorites tab, scroll the tab to review the categorized adjustments; select a preset or custom thumbnail. 2. Click OK. When applied, your image layer is automatically converted to a non-destructive filter layer with a PhotoFix adjustment entry nested under the filter layer entry. To apply an adjustment (using custom settings): 1.
64 Image Adjustments and Effects Using PhotoFix masks Masks in PhotoFix adopt the same principles as layer masks (see p. 44). In PhotoFix however, masking is used to apply adjustment filters to selected "painted" regions of your image or to protect painted regions from change. Painting is used exclusively to create PhotoFix masks. Each new mask comprises the selected mask region, plus a set of adjustments applied to that mask. You can change the adjustments associated with the mask at a later date.
Image Adjustments and Effects 65 To apply a mask: Create Mask from the main toolbar. 1. Select 2. In the Mask Brush pane, select the 3. Adjust the settings to suit your requirements. For example, adjust Brush Size to paint larger or more intricate regions. 4. In the Mode drop-down menu, choose one of the following options: Add Region tool. Select: Choose this if you want to apply the filter only to the regions you paint. This is the default setting.
66 Image Adjustments and Effects Adding multiple masks So far we've looked at an individual mask applied to an image. However, PhotoFix also supports multiple masks where a different set of adjustments can be applied to each mask. You can therefore build up a patchwork of masked regions for absolute and selective control of image adjustments. To apply additional masks: 1. In PhotoFix, click the down arrow on the Filters heading. 2. From the drop-down list, select New.... 3.
Image Adjustments and Effects 67 Saving favorites If there's a specific filter setting (or combination of filters) you want to keep for future use it's easy to save it as a favorite. PhotoFix stores preset and custom favorites together in the Favorites tab. You can even create your own categories (e.g., My Adjusts) within the tab for storing your custom adjustments. To save a filter(s) as a new favorite: Save Filter on the modified filter's 1. Click pane. 2.
68 Image Adjustments and Effects Each effect can be applied in one of several ways: via dialog, on a filter layer. (Non-destructive). via the Filter Gallery on a filter layer. (Non-destructive). via dialog, on a standard layer. (Destructive). Equally dramatic effects can be applied by using Warp tools on the Tools toolbar's flyout or 2D/3D layer effects via the Layers tab. As with image adjustments (see Overview: adjusting image colors on p.
Image Adjustments and Effects 69 To convert to a filter layer: 1. In the Layers tab, right-click a standard or Background layer and choose Convert to Filter Layer. 2. The layer now shows the letter "F" indicating that it is now a filter layer, and ready to have a filter applied. To add filters to the filter layer: 1. Select the filter layer. 2. Add an adjustment via the Image menu. OR Add an effect via the Effects menu or via the Filter Gallery (p. 74).
70 Image Adjustments and Effects Managing filter groups and specific filters When you apply a filter to a filter layer it automatically creates a filter group. This allows you to store and manage a selection of filters more easily—you'll be able to control multiple filter in bulk by operating at the group level, e.g. to hide/show, delete, apply blend modes, and opacity to all filters simultaneously.
Image Adjustments and Effects 71 Editing filters The core objective of filter layers is to host filters applied to your image. Once a filter is applied, it's likely that you may want to edit it at a later date. To edit a filter: 1. Double-click the filter entry, e.g. Gaussian Blur. OR Right-click the filter and select Edit Filter.... 2. The filter can then be edited via dialog or Filter Gallery. Adjust the filter and click OK. Using filter masks In an identical way to layer masks (see p.
72 Image Adjustments and Effects To create a filter mask (from a selection): 1. Make a selection on which your mask will be based, e.g. a brush selection around the subject of interest. By default the area outside the selection is masked (not affected), while the selection area has the chosen filter applied (i.e., the effect will not be applied to it). If you want to do the opposite, choose Invert from the Select menu. 2. In the Layers tab, select the filter layer to which you wish to apply a filter.
Image Adjustments and Effects 73 3. Right-click the created filter group and select Add Mask from the flyout menu. A mask thumbnail appears to the left of the filter name. 4. Paint or draw on your image using a suitable grayscale value set as your foreground color tab. The lower the value, the less masking that is applied to the original image. The mask thumbnail updates accordingly. The above mask thumbnail would apply a mask which produces a vignette effect.
74 Image Adjustments and Effects Using the Filter Gallery The Filter Gallery offers a one-stop studio environment for applying single or multiple filter effects. The gallery hosts sets of filter thumbnails which are categorized into different effect categories (e.g., Distort, Blur, Sharpen, Edge, Artistic, Noise, Render, etc.). Thumbnails are shown in expandable categories. The Filter Gallery offers the following key features: Application of individual or multiple filter effects simultaneously.
Image Adjustments and Effects 75 You'll also launch the Filter Gallery when you double-click any filter effect already applied to a Filter Layer. For some effects hosted on the Effects menu, the Filter Gallery will automatically be launched with the effect already applied. To add a filter in the Filter Gallery: Expand button (click 1. Expand your chosen effect category by clicking the to collapse). 2. Click on an effect thumbnail to apply it to your image.
76 Image Adjustments and Effects Use the Undo button to undo recent changes to the filter (or the Redo button to re-apply the changes). 3. Adjust sliders (or enter input values) until your filter suits your requirements. Some filters offer check boxes, drop-down menus, and additional controls (e.g., Advanced settings). The large preview window updates automatically as you adjust any values.
Image Adjustments and Effects 77 To replace a filter: 1. Ensure Replace selected is checked. 2. Select the filter you wish to replace by clicking anywhere in the filter's pane. On selection, the selected filter shows a lighter background, e.g., Gaussian below. 3. Select a replacement filter from an effect category. Your selected filter is replaced in the stack with no change made to the existing stack order. The order in which effects appear in the effect list may produce very different results.
78 Image Adjustments and Effects Applying 2D layer effects Layer effects can be applied to the contents of standard (transparent) layers, text layers, or shape layers. Standard or "2D" layer effects like shadow, glow, bevel, and emboss are particularly well adapted to text, while 3D layer effects (covered elsewhere; p. 79) create the impression of a textured surface.
Image Adjustments and Effects 79 Bevel and Emboss/Pillow Emboss adds a concave rounded edge and shadow effect to an object. Color Fill lets you apply a specific color to a layer. Outline applies a border effect to the edge of an object. See Creating outlines on p. 152. To apply a shadow, glow, bevel, or emboss effect: Add Layer Effects. 1. From the Layers tab, select a layer and click 2. In the dialog, apply an effect by checking its check box in the list at left.
80 Image Adjustments and Effects To make the effect appear smaller or larger in relation to the image, drag the Scale slider or type a value in the tab. You can apply an effect from the Instant Effects tab preset, edit it (using the Layer Effects dialog) and then save it as a custom preset in a user-defined category (you'll have to create and select the category first). To save the preset, right-click in the tab and choose Add Item....
Image Adjustments and Effects 81 To apply 3D Effects: Click Add Layer Effects on the Layers tab and check 3D Effects in the Layer Effects dialog. Adjust the "master control" sliders here to vary the overall properties of any individual 3D effects you select. Blur specifies the amount of smoothing applied. Larger blur sizes give the impression of broader, more gradual changes in height. Depth specifies how steep the changes in depth appear.
82 Image Adjustments and Effects 3D Reflection Map The 3D Reflection Map effect is used to simulate mirrored surfaces by selection of a pattern (i.e., a bitmap which possesses a shiny surface) which "wraps around" a selected object. Patterns which simulate various realistic indoor and outdoor environments can be adopted, with optional use of 3D lighting to further reflect off object edges. The effect is often used in combination with the Transparency option.
Image Adjustments and Effects 83 Pinch and Punch The Tools apply, respectively, a concave or convex spherical distortion under the brush. Wiggle the brush in the region you want to change. The Twirl Tools produce a "spin art" effect— liquid paint on a surface revolving either clockwise or counter-clockwise around a central point. Wiggle the brush in the region you want to change.
84 Image Adjustments and Effects Use the Unwarp Tool to reduce the strength of the current warped effect under the brush. Drag the Unwarp brush across a warped region. Note that Unwarp only works as long as you're still using the Warp tools. Similarly, PhotoPlus treats all your operations during one warping session as a single, cumulative event; using the Undo command clears the whole session.
Image Adjustments and Effects 85 For good results, it's important to bear the following points in mind: Many modern cameras offer auto-bracketing which automatically takes several shots at different exposure levels. A two-EV spacing is considered to be optimum for most occasions. Alternatively, shoot with manual exposure set. Always shoot the same scene! Your output is based on a composite of the same scene. Take as many shots as is needed to cover your required dynamic range.
86 Image Adjustments and Effects Click the Add button to add more photos or the Remove button to exclude a selected photo. For scanned images (from camera film) which won't possess EXIF-derived Exposure values, you can click the Edit Exposure button to add your own exposure values to entries if you've kept a record (or you could just add +2.0, 0, and -2 then experiment with the results). 4.
Image Adjustments and Effects 87 To adjust your intermediate image: 1. From the HDR Merge dialog, an image preview is displayed, along with a merge file list and merge settings. Optionally, uncheck an image from the upper-right list to exclude it from the merge. 2. Drag the Compression slider to a new value—use your eye to judge the best merge results, but also the supporting Histogram to ensure that the tonal range fits into the visible graph without clipping.
88 Image Adjustments and Effects
5 Manipulating Images
90 Manipulating Images
Manipulating Images 91 Making a selection In any photo editing program, the selection tools and techniques are as significant as any of the basic brush tools or commands. The basic principle is simple: quite often you'll want to perform an operation on just a portion of the image. To do this you must define an active selection area. The wide range of selection options in PhotoPlus lets you: Define just about any selection shape, using various drawing and painting techniques.
92 Manipulating Images To cancel the selection (select nothing): Right-click and choose Deselect, use the Select menu or press Ctrl+D. The opposite of selecting nothing is selecting everything: To select the entire active layer, press Ctrl+A, or choose Select All from the Select menu. For partial selection of opaque pixels, you can Ctrl-click the layer thumbnail (in Layers tab).
Manipulating Images Lasso Tools flyout 93 Freehand Selection Tool—lets you draw a freehand (irregular) line which is closed automatically to create an irregularly shaped selection area. Polygon Selection Tool—lets you draw a series of straight-line segments (double-click to close the polygon). Magnetic Selection Tool—lets you trace around an object edge creating a selection line that snaps to the edge as you drag.
94 Manipulating Images Add = Subtract = Intersect = For Rectangle and Ellipse Selection tools, the Context toolbar additionally lets you set a Fixed Size or Fixed Aspect, or number of Rows or Columns (Rectangle Selection Tool only) in advance of creating your selection—great if you have a clear idea of the selection area required! Using the Selection Brush Tool is a simple way to create a brush-based selection.
Manipulating Images 95 Color Range As an intelligent color selection method, i.e. where selection is based on "tagging" a specific range of colors or tones in the image, choose Color Range from the Select menu. To select a color range: 1. Choose Color Range... from the Select menu. The Color Range dialog appears, with the image visible in the main Preview window. 2.
96 Manipulating Images Meanwhile, the dialog provides visual feedback. 1. If Show Selection is checked, the grayscale Selection window on the right shows tagged values as brighter, with untagged pixels darker. To customize what’s displayed in the Preview window on the left, choose an option from the Preview list: "None" shows the original image, "White Matte" shows tagged pixels through a white background, and so on. 2. Click OK to confirm the selection, or Cancel to abandon changes.
Manipulating Images 97 Use in conjunction with the Ctrl key to transform the selection area without constraint, creating a skewed transform (drag nodes as appropriate). The Alt key resizes the area about its center, while the Shift key maintains the area’s aspect ratio. It’s also possible to move the small center of rotation "handle" in the center of the transform to produce an arc rotational movement rather than rotating around the area’s center (by default).
98 Manipulating Images To modify a current selection: 1. From any Selection context toolbar, select Modify Selection.... 2. From the Modify Selection dialog, you can enter a specific pixel value for the type of operation you require. Feather: Use to apply feathering "after the fact" to an existing selection (but before applying any editing changes). Enter the width (in pixels) of the transition area. A higher value produces a wider, more gradual fade-out. See Soft-edged and hard-edged selections below.
Manipulating Images 99 Soft-edged and hard-edged selections Antialiasing and feathering are different ways of controlling what happens at the edges of a selection. Both produce softer edges that result in smoother blending of elements that are being combined in the image. You can control either option for the Standard and QuickShape Selection tools, using the Feather input box (or slider) and Antialias check box on the Context toolbar.
100 Manipulating Images Manipulating a selection Moving the selection marquee Sometimes, you need to adjust the position of the marquee without affecting the underlying pixels. Any time you're using one of the selection tools, the cursor over a selected region changes to the Move Marquee cursor, which lets you drag the marquee outline to reposition it. You’re only moving the selection outline— not the image content inside it. You can also use the keyboard arrows to "nudge" the selection marquee.
Manipulating Images 101 The "hole" left behind when the image content is moved exposes the current background color (on the Background layer), or transparency (see above; on standard layers), shown with a "checkerboard" pattern. To duplicate the contents of the selection on the active layer, press the Alt key and click, then drag with the Move Tool. As a shortcut if you're working with any one of the selection tools, you can press the Ctrl key to switch temporarily to the Move Tool.
102 Manipulating Images To paste into the current selection, press Shift+Ctrl+L or choose Paste> Into Selection from the Edit menu. The Clipboard contents appear centered in the currently selected region. (This choice is grayed out if there's no selection, or if the active layer is a text layer.) This option is useful if you’re pasting from one layer to another. Because the selection marquee “follows” you to the new layer, you can use it to keep the pasted contents in registration with the previous layer.
Manipulating Images 103 Changing image size The Image Size dialog lets you specify a new size for the whole image, in terms of its screen dimensions and/or printed dimensions. To resize the whole image: 1. Choose Image Size... from the Image menu. 2. To specify just the printed dimensions, uncheck Resize layers. Check the box to link the Pixel Size (screen) settings to the Print Size or Resolution settings. 3. To retain the current image proportions, check Maintain aspect ratio.
104 Manipulating Images To change canvas size: 1. Choose Canvas Size... from the Image menu. 2. Enter New Width and/or New Height values (the current values are also shown for comparison). Alternatively, select the Relative check box to enter the number of units you want to add or subtract from the existing width and height values—for example, 5 pixels, 1 cm, 100 points, 10 percent, and so on. 3.
Manipulating Images 105 To crop unconstrained: 1. From the Tools toolbar's Crop Tools flyout, select the Crop Tool. Ensure the Unconstrained option is set in the Context toolbar's first drop-down list. 2. Drag out a rectangle to create an unconstrained rectangle, then fine-tune the areas dimensions if needed by dragging the edges. Note that you can also constrain the crop area to be a square, by holding down the Ctrl key while dragging. 3.
106 Manipulating Images Use the Thirds grid check box on the Context toolbar for improving photo composition. A 3 x 3 rectangular grid with equally spaced lines (two vertically, two horizontally) is superimposed on top of your photo when the check box is selected. Moving and resizing the grid allows the main subject of your photo (in this case a big wheel) to be offset and balanced against a foreground or background feature within the photo (e.g., the sky as background).
Manipulating Images 107 If the selection region is non-rectangular, the left-over surrounding region will be either transparent (on a standard layer) or the current background color (e.g., white). Cropping to the selection affects all image layers. Everything outside the selected region is eliminated. Flipping and rotating Flipping and rotating are standard manipulations that you can carry out on the whole image, the active layer, a path, or just on a selection.
108 Manipulating Images To rotate: 1. Choose Rotate from the Image menu. 2. From the flyout menu, select an option based on the object (Image, Layer, or Selection), rotation angle (90º or 180º), and the direction (Clockwise or Counter-clockwise) required. 3. You can also select Custom..., to display a Rotate dialog, from which you can do all of the above but instead set your own custom angle, even down to fractional degrees.
Manipulating Images 109 The tool's action depends on the exact position of the mouse pointer. As you move the pointer around the enclosed region, the cursor changes as shown below to indicate which action is possible. To move the region without any deformation, drag from its neutral midsection. This action works just like the Move Tool. To reshape the region, drag from an edge or corner handle. A variety of options are available (watch the Hintline for tips).
110 Manipulating Images • For a constrained skew effect, press Shift+Ctrl and drag the edge along its line. • For constrained skew relative to the fixed point, press Shift+Ctrl+Alt and drag the edge along its line. To rotate the region about the fixed point, drag from just outside a corner. To constrain rotation in 15-degree steps, press the Shift key after you've begun rotation, and hold it down until after you release the mouse button. You can change the location of the fixed point (see below).
Manipulating Images 111 The straight line segments are actually bendable curves. When you alter the contours of the mesh and distort the initial rectangular grid, the underlying image deforms accordingly. To change the mesh, you simply move nodes, node attractor handles, or connecting lines; add or subtract nodes as needed; and/or edit nodes to change the curvature of adjoining lines. To select a mesh node: Click it. (Shift-click or drag a marquee to select multiple nodes.
112 Manipulating Images To delete one or more nodes: 1. Select the node(s). 2. Press Delete. OR Click the Delete node(s) button on the displayed Context toolbar. Deleting a node also deletes lines and nodes connected to it. If you delete a corner or edge node, the overall mesh area will decrease. To delete a specific grid line and its nodes, click to place a marker on the line, then press Delete. The bendability of line segments depends on the type of nodes at either end.
Manipulating Images 113 Symmetric nodes join curves with the same slope and depth on both sides of the node. To reset the mesh to full-frame and rectangular: Click the Reset Mesh button on the Mesh Context toolbar. To hide the mesh for a better preview of the image: Click the Hide/Show Mesh button on the Mesh Context toolbar. Click again to reveal the mesh for editing.
114 Manipulating Images Watch the Hintline for details on many key-assisted options such as skew, squash/stretch, and perspective effects. In this respect, the tool works almost exactly like the regular Deform Tool (see p. 108). 3. Click the button again to return to standard mesh warping. Using Image Cutout Studio Image Cutout Studio offers a powerful integrated solution for cutting out part of an image on an active Background or standard layer.
Manipulating Images 115 Changing output settings You can set the level of transparency and pixel blending at the cutout edge by adjusting the output settings, Width and Blur. Control of the cutout edge lets you blend your cutout into new backgrounds more realistically. To change output settings: 1. Drag the Width slider to set the extent (in pixels) to which "alpha" blending is applied inside the cutout edge. This creates an offset region within which blending occurs. 2.
116 Manipulating Images For Show transparent mode, a different Background color can be set (at bottom of the Studio) which might help differentiate areas to keep or discard. To select areas for keeping/discarding: 1. In Image Cutout Studio, click either Keep Brush Tool or Discard Brush Tool from the left of the Studio workspace. 2. (Optional) Pick a Brush size suitable for the area to be worked on. 3.
Manipulating Images 117 Refining your cutout area Erase and Restore touch-up tools can be used to refine the cutout area within the studio before completing your cutout. The touch-up tools are brush based and are only to be used to fine-tune your almost complete cutout—use your Keep and Discard brush tools for the bulk of your work! To restore or remove portions of your cutout: 1. With your cutout areas already defined, click Preview (Output settings tab).
118 Manipulating Images PhotoPlus lets you show, hide, and select composite or specific channels of any photo from a single point, called the Channels tab. This tab lists the composite RGB and each individual Red, Green and Blue channel in turn. If hidden, make this tab visible via Window>Studio Tabs. By default, all channels are selected and visible (see opposite). Why do we want to select channels anyway? This is because you can apply an edit to an individual channel in isolation.
Manipulating Images 119 To select specific channels for edit: 1. Select the Channels tab. All channels are switched on and are shown by default. 2. Click on the channel you want to select—the other channels will be deselected and hidden automatically. Use Shift-click to include additional channels if necessary. 3. Apply the adjustment, special effect, painting operation, etc. to the selected channel(s).
120 Manipulating Images The vertical Y axis is the relative pixel count at each of the levels on the X axis described above. The higher the graph is at any level, the more pixels reside at that particular level. Remember that this histogram could refer to a Red, Green, Blue, RGB or luminance channel. A crosshair cursor can be moved around the histogram, displaying the pixel count for the color level that your cursor is currently placed at.
6 Painting and Drawing
122 Painting and Drawing
Painting and Drawing 123 Color concepts Color modes PhotoPlus operates in several color modes to let you work in standard and higher levels of color or tonal detail—these are 8-bits/channel RGB (or 8-bits/channel Grayscale) and the more detailed 16-bits/channel RGB (or 16-bits/channel Grayscale) . Editing in 8 bits/channel mode will use 256 levels per color channel, as opposed to 16-bits/channel, which uses 65,536 levels per channel.
124 Painting and Drawing At some point, you may have no need to work at a high level of detail (16 Bits/channel). In converting to 8-bit mode, you may want to opt for smaller file sizes or take advantage of PhotoPlus's range of special filter effects. To switch from 16-bits/channel to 8-bits/channel working: From the Image menu, select Color Mode, and pick an 8-bits/channel option from the submenu.
Painting and Drawing 125 Defining colors Now, a few things to remember about how these colors are used: When you draw a selection, shape, or use the paintbrush tools, you could apply the foreground color. However, the black text in the design could be created after swapping foreground and background colors over using the tab's button. Loading the foreground and background color with two frequently used colors is a great way to boost productivity when painting and drawing.
126 Painting and Drawing 1. On the Color tab, move the mouse pointer (dropper cursor) around the Color Spectrum. As you move the dropper cursor around the spectrum, the tab's active color swatch updates to the color at the cursor position. 2. Left-click in the spectrum to set a new foreground color, and right-click to set a new background color. You can change this RGB spectrum to display in Grayscale, or show the colors spread between the Foreground/Background colors (click the button on the tab).
Painting and Drawing 127 You can store your currently selected foreground color (in Color tab) to the currently selected category (e.g., G_234); you can also create categories yourself into which you can add your own thumbnails. The Swatches tab also lets you choose pre-defined colors from a range of "themed" categories (e.g., Earth, Fruits, Pastel, and web browser safe). To add a color to the Swatches tab: 1. Either: Choose a color from the Color tab's color spectrum.
128 Painting and Drawing Painting The Paintbrush Tool and Pencil Tool on the Tools toolbar are the basic tools for painting and drawing freehand lines on the active layer. They work on Background and standard layers, but not on text layers or shape layers. The tools work by changing pixels on the layer. The Paintbrush Tool will always apply antialiasing to its brush strokes without exception.
Painting and Drawing 129 If a more bespoke brush tip is required, you can also customize your own brush tip and save it in its own user-defined category. (See PhotoPlus help for details.) An important factor when applying brush strokes is the level of opacity applied to the brush. This attribute affects brush strokes significantly when the stroke is applied onto already transparent standard layers. The greater the opacity the more opaque the brush stroke, and vice versa.
130 Painting and Drawing Stamping and spraying pictures The Picture Brush Tool works like a custom brush that sprays a series of pre-defined or custom images at regular intervals as you drag. Used in conjunction with the Brush Tip tab you can select from a variety of picture brushes in different categories, and you can import Paint Shop Pro "picture tubes".
Painting and Drawing 131 To import a Paint Shop Pro picture tube file: 1. On the Brush Tip tab, select a category you've created yourself, right-click and choose Import.... 2. Use the dialog to browse for and select the picture tube (.TUB) file to import. If you right-click on any gallery sample, you can manage categories, and access brush options. With a bit of forethought, it’s not difficult to lay out your own master images and from them create your own custom Picture Brush tips.
132 Painting and Drawing To erase with the Standard Eraser: Standard Eraser from the Tools toolbar's Eraser Tools flyout. 1. Select 2. (Optional) Change attributes, especially brush Size and Opacity, on the Context toolbar. For erasing with an airbrush effect or hard-edged brush, check the Airbrush or Hard Edge option. For tablet users, pressure sensitivity can be switched on via Brush Options (click Brush thumbnail); ensure the Controller drop-down list is set to "Pressure" on selected attributes.
Painting and Drawing Contiguous 133 Discontiguous With "Continual" sampling (the default), the reference color is repeatedly updated as you move the cursor. Sampling "Once" means erasure is based on the color under the crosshair when you first click. Use the "Background Swatch" setting to use the current background color (Color tab) as the reference. You also have the option of protecting the current foreground color from erasure (Protect foreground).
134 Painting and Drawing Check Contiguous to erase only within-tolerance pixels connected to each other; when unchecked, all in-range pixels are erased. Check Use All Layers to take color boundaries on other layers into account, although erasure happens only on the current layer. Antialias smooths the boundary between the erased area and the remaining area.
Painting and Drawing 135 To paint with a pattern: Pattern Tool from the Tools toolbar's Clone Tools flyout. 1. Select the 2. On the Context toolbar, choose your brush attributes (see PhotoPlus Help) and click the Pattern thumbnail to display the Patterns dialog. To select from various pattern categories, right-click any of the thumbnails and choose a different category from the bottom of the flyout menu. Simply click a pattern to select it.
136 Painting and Drawing Filling a region Filling regions or layers is an alternative to brushing on colors or patterns. Making a selection prior to applying a fill, and setting appropriate options, can spell the difference between a humdrum effect and a spectacular one. The Fill Tools flyout on the Tools toolbar includes two tools for filling regions with color and/or transparency: Flood Fill and Gradient Fill. In addition, you can use the Edit>Fill... command to apply either a color or pattern fill.
Painting and Drawing 137 The Context toolbar includes an All Layers option. If checked, the Flood Fill tool samples pixels on all layers (both shown and hidden) underlying the click point, as if the layers were merged into one. If unchecked, it only samples pixels on the active layer. In either case, it only fills pixels on the active layer.
138 Painting and Drawing For a Pattern fill, set the Type to Pattern. The blend options are the same, but in this mode instead of choosing a color you can fill a region with any pattern stored in the Patterns dialog. Click the pattern sample to bring up the gallery of pattern thumbnails, then right-click any thumbnail to choose a category from the bottom of the list. (See Using patterns on p. 134.
Painting and Drawing 139 On standard and Background layers, the tool creates a "spectrum" effect, filling the active layer or selection with colors spreading between the key colors in the selected gradient fill. The fill is applied rather like a coat of spray paint over existing pixels on the layer; color and transparency properties in the fill gradient interact with the existing pixels to produce new values.
140 3. Painting and Drawing To choose a preset or to edit the fill's colors and/or transparency values, click the color sample on the Context toolbar. The Gradient dialog appears, where you can select a preset fill from the default gallery or right-click and choose a fill from different pre-defined categories (e.g., Blues, Greens, etc.). The right-click menu also lets you add, edit or delete categories; items can also be added (or deleted) when a custom fill is created in the fill spectrum.
Painting and Drawing 141 Cloning a region The Clone Tool is like two magic brushes locked together. While you trace or "pick up" an original drawing with one brush, the other draws ("puts down") an exact duplicate somewhere else—even in another image. When retouching, for example, you can remove an unwanted object from an image by extending another area of the image over it (note the pickup area is positioned over the sea rather than the original boat).
142 Painting and Drawing For additional brush strokes, to always reuse the original pickup point, keep Aligned unchecked. Check Aligned to have your pickup point change to be offset in relation to your brush tip's position—great for removing unwanted regions that follow a natural path (e.g., a tree branch).
Painting and Drawing 143 To create new solid text: 1. Click the Text Tools flyout on the Tools toolbar and choose the standard Text Tool. 2. Click on your image with the text cursor to set where you want to insert text. The text attributes (font, point size, bold/italic/underline, alignment, antialias and color) set on the Text Context toolbar prior to clicking will be applied. OR Drag across the page to size your text according to requirements. Release the mouse button to set the point size. 3.
144 Painting and Drawing To swap to a gradient color: 1. On the Layers tab, right-click the Text layer and choose Edit Fill.... 2. Change the Fill Type from Solid to one of Linear, Radial, Conical, or Square. 3. Click on the Fill gradient swatch and select a preset gradient fill or create your own gradient from the dialog (see Filling a region on p. 136). The gradient fill is immediately applied to your text. This applies a gradient fill to all of your text on the layer and not to selected text.
Painting and Drawing 145 Drawing and editing lines and shapes For drawing and editing lines and shapes, the Tools toolbar includes the following drawing tool flyouts: The QuickShape Tools flyout featuring an assortment of tools for creating rectangles, ellipses, polygons, and other shapes. The Line Tools flyout features straight lines, plus freehand pen and curved pen lines. Overview Each of the drawing tools has its own creation and editing rules, as detailed below.
146 Painting and Drawing Curved and freehand pen lines cannot be drawn as filled bitmaps. Assuming you’re working on a non-shape layer when you create a shape, the new shape appears on a new shape layer. But what about the next shape you create? Shape layers can store more than one shape, and it’s up to you where the next one will go. This decision is made easy by use of the Context toolbar when the QuickShape or line tool is selected.
Painting and Drawing 147 A single fill is shared by all the shapes on a particular layer. (Technically the fill is a property of the layer, and the shape(s) act like a "window" that lets you see the fill.) So if you want to draw a red box and a yellow box, for example, you'll need two shape layers. You can also alter a shape layer's Opacity using the Layers tab.
148 Painting and Drawing 4. Select a foreground color, and any other characteristics for the QuickShape. 5. Drag out the shape on the image. It displays as an outline; hold down the Ctrl key while drawing to constrain the aspect ratio. Once drawn, the shape takes a Solid fill using the Color tab's foreground color. To create a filled bitmap from your QuickShape instead, choose the Fill Bitmaps button instead of the Shape Layers button.
Painting and Drawing 2. 149 Use either: The Node Edit Tool (Tools toolbar) to click on the shape and readjust any of the shape's handles. OR The Shape Edit Tool to select, move, resize, and deform individual shapes. (If you only have one shape on a layer, you can use the Move Tool and Deform Tool.) To resize without constraint, you can drag any shape's handle; to constrain the shape's proportions, hold down the Shift key while dragging. To deform the shape, drag a node while the Ctrl key is pressed.
150 Painting and Drawing Each tool's supporting context toolbar lets you create the line on a shape layer, as a path or directly as a filled bitmap. Additionally, combination buttons let you add the line to its own layer (or path), and can also be used to control how the new line interacts with existing shapes on the layer. Besides being useful with QuickShapes, the Node Edit and Shape Edit tools really come into their own when editing lines. To edit a line: 1. Click its layer name to select the layer.
Painting and Drawing 151 Sharp Corner means that the segments either side of the node are completely independent so that the corner can be quite pointed. Smooth Corner means that the slope of the line is the same on both sides of the node, but the depth of the two joined segments can be different. Symmetric Corner nodes join line segments with the same slope and depth on both sides of the node. To edit a node: 1. Select it with the Node Edit Tool. 2.
152 Painting and Drawing Creating outlines Two approaches to creating outlines are available within PhotoPlus—creating an outline from any current selection and creating outlines around layer objects, especially text and shapes (as a layer effect). You'll primarily create outlines around text and other objects so the latter method is predominantly used (but we'll cover both!).
Painting and Drawing 153 3. (Optional) From the Mode drop-down menu, pick a blend mode, which controls how the outline color and underlying pixels blend to make a combined resulting color. Select the percentage Opacity for the outline when blending, and check Preserve Transparency to make transparent areas resist the flood color; otherwise, everything in the selection or layer will be equally washed with the fill. 4. Click OK. The outline appears around the selection area.
154 Painting and Drawing To switch off the layer effect: With the layer selected, click the Outline in the Layer Effects dialog. Layer Effects button and uncheck Using paths Paths are basically outlines. As such, every filled shape you draw has a path— namely the outline that defines it. In fact, each shape layer has its own path thumbnail next to the layer name, representing the shape(s) that reside on that layer.
Painting and Drawing 155 To create a path outline from a QuickShape/outline or selection: 1. Select a QuickShape or Outline tool, then ensure Paths is selected on the Context toolbar. (For details on using these tools, see Drawing and editing lines and shapes on p. 145). 2. Drag across the page to create your path. OR 3. To create a path outline whose shape matches any selection area, first create the selection on a layer. 4. Click 5.
156 Painting and Drawing You can also flip a path outline either horizontally or vertically. Use the Flip Horizontally>Path or Flip Vertically>Path option from the Image menu, respectively. To create a selection from a path: 1. Select the Background or standard layer where you want to create the selection. 2. On the Paths tab, select the path from which you want to create the selection. 3. Click the 4.
Painting and Drawing 157 To create a filled bitmap from a path: 1. Select the Background or standard layer where you want to create the filled bitmap. 2. Set a foreground color. 3. On the Paths tab, select the path you want to fill. Make sure the path is positioned where you want it. 4. Click the Path).
158 Painting and Drawing
7 Making Images for the Web
160 Making Images for the Web
Making Images for the Web 161 Slicing images Image slicing and image maps are two convenient ways to create navigation bars and clickable graphics for web pages. With image slicing, a graphic is carved up into smaller graphics—each of which can have its own link, like any web graphic—and PhotoPlus saves the sections as separate files when you export the image. The process also exports HTML tags describing a table containing the separate graphics, allowing a web browser to reassemble them seamlessly.
162 Making Images for the Web Once you've sliced up your image you have to export it to make the image slices understandable to a web visitor's browser. To export a sliced image: When exporting with File>Export Optimizer, specify a name and folder for the files as usual, and choose either .GIF or .JPG as the export file type. Ensure the Create Image Slices box is checked on the second Export dialog. Since exporting slices creates multiple files, you may wish to create a separate folder for them.
Making Images for the Web 163 To draw a hotspot: 1. Click the Image Map Tools flyout on the Standard toolbar and choose one of the following tools: Image Map Rectangle Image Map Circle Image Map Polygon 2. For rectangles and circles, use the tool to drag out a hotspot on the active layer. To draw a polygon, drag and release the mouse button to define each line segment; double-click to close the polygon. All hotspots are shaded in turquoise.
164 Making Images for the Web To export an image map: When exporting via Export Optimizer, export the image for which you have created the image map as a .GIF (for non-photographic images) or a .JPG (for photographic images). Ensure the Create HTML for Image Maps box is checked on the second Export dialog. The output consists of an image file and an HTML file with the same base name. The HTML file contains the tags for the image map, ready to be pasted into the source code for the web page.
8 Macros and Batch Processing
166 Macros and Batch Processing
Macros and Batch Processing 167 Understanding macros If there are operations that you want to repeatedly perform in PhotoPlus, you can apply a macro. Put simply, a macro is a saved sequence of commands that can be stored and then recalled at a later date. Macros can be used for: Downsampling Reformatting Applying effects Applying adjustments Framing and vignetting PhotoPlus offers a wide range of pre-recorded macros ready for your use.
168 Macros and Batch Processing You can cut, copy, paste or even duplicate any macro. This allows you to modify preset macros once pasted into your own user-defined categories. Recording Macros Of course at some point you may want to record your own macro. It’s probably a good idea to create a new category into which you can save your newly recorded macros—this keeps them separate from the pre-recorded macros supplied with PhotoPlus.
169 Macros and Batch Processing To record a macro: 1. In the Macros tab, select a category from the drop-down list of category names. 2. New Macro button at the bottom of the Macros tab, enter a Click the macro name in advance of recording your macro, then click OK. The macro name appears at the bottom of the list of macros in the currently displayed category. 3. Select the Start Recording button. Any command that can be saved in a macro will be stored while recording is in progress. 4.
170 Macros and Batch Processing Modifying Macros Once you’ve recorded and played back your macro it's possible to modify the macro’s saved sequence of commands. These are listed in the order they were recorded and may be enabled, disabled, reordered or made interactive "on the fly". Macro commands are enabled by default. In the command list, the command order can be rearranged by simple drag and drop of any command into a new position.
Macros and Batch Processing 171 To enable command interactivity: This allows you to intervene in the macro running process to alter some dialog values, i.e. the next time a macro is played, the macro will pop-up the relevant dialog associated with a command, pausing the macro temporarily. For example, for a "Frames" macro, the Fill dialog could be made to display during macro playback to allow a new fill to be entered manually (try some preset Frames macros + options for examples of this). 1.
172 Macros and Batch Processing 3. Click OK. The Stop command is added to the command list below the command you performed a right-click on (you may want to drag it to before the command). 4. Load a photo and play the modified macro (see Playing Macros above). The macro pauses to display a dialog with your instructions—remember these before the next step! 5. Click the Stop button. 6. Perform the task(s) as instructed in the dialog. 7.
Macros and Batch Processing 173 Resize Images: to resample images to various widths, heights, or resolutions (using different resampling methods). Change File Name: to alter the file names of images in bulk. For any of the above, you specify separate source and destination folders as your input and output. There are several advantages to this, mainly that your original photos are not overwritten. The Batch dialog, available from the File menu, is used to perform all of the above operations.
174 Macros and Batch Processing Using macros Macros (see p. 167) can be applied to a batch process easily (via Use Macros). PhotoPlus doesn’t differentiate between pre-recorded and recorded macros. If available, they are selected from the same Category and Macro drop-down menus equally. Changing file type It is possible to convert your photos into one of many different file types available in PhotoPlus (via Change File Type).
Macros and Batch Processing 175 Check Maintain aspect ratio then enter values for Max Width and Max Height to scale to maximum intended dimensions while preserving the image's original aspect ratio. With Maintain aspect ratio unchecked, enter values for absolute Width and Height to make images of a fixed size. As aspect ratio is not maintained, images may be stretched horizontally or vertically.
176 Macros and Batch Processing Changing file names It is also possible to define a Destination File Name for the files to be processed by selecting the dialog's Modify... button. In the File Name Format dialog you can select new file names that can be built up using the current date/time, document names, sequence number, or text string, individually or in combination.
9 Creating Animations
178 Creating Animations
Creating Animations 179 Getting started with animation Animation creates an illusion of motion or change by displaying a series of still pictures, rapidly enough to fool the eye—or more accurately, the brain. With PhotoPlus, it's easy to create and edit images with multiple frames, then export them as animated GIFs that a web browser can play back, or AVI movies for multimedia applications.
180 Creating Animations In this file (as in any imported .GIF animation) the individual frames can each occupy one layer in the PhotoPlus image. This is controlled with the Add Layer to Each New Frame check box, available by right-clicking the Animation tab. Each new frame can therefore be edited independently as it occupies its own layer. On the Layers tab, the layer stack for this animation corresponds with the frame sequence, with default names—in this case, the default "Layer 1" through to "Layer 5".
Creating Animations 181 Single-layer animation Let's look at a different example (below) which shows the Yin-Yang symbol as a bouncing ball, and although it has four frames it only has one layer (Add Layer to Each New Frame was unchecked). Three additional frames were cloned from Frame 1 (using the New Frame button), and then, within each subsequent frame the layer was dragged slightly (with the Move Tool) to reposition its contents in the window.
182 Creating Animations The previously selected frame is cloned as a new frame, immediately following it in the sequence. To select a single frame: To select any one frame, click its thumbnail. Click the (rewind). First Frame button to select the first frame of the sequence Click the Previous Frame button to select the previous frame of the sequence. If the first frame was selected, you'll cycle back to the last frame of the sequence. Click the Next Frame button to select the next frame of the sequence.
Creating Animations 183 Set which frame attributes are to be tweened—choose Position, Opacity and/or Effects. Position lets you distribute frame objects evenly between next and previous frames (great for creating motion quickly). To clone multiple frames, select (see above) then click the New Frame button. To clone all frames, right-click the tab and choose Select All then clone. Use Reverse Frames on the right-click menu to reverse the order of a series of selected frames.
184 Creating Animations For .gif (not .avi files), you can set a loop property for the animation as a whole. (You can also set this property on the Animation pane of the Export Optimizer.) If you want the sequence to play through only once and end displaying the first frame, click the Fixed Loop button and enter "1" in the box. Enter a higher value to repeat the sequence a fixed number of times. Click the Endless Loop button to have the sequence repeat indefinitely.
10 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets
186 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets
Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets 187 Pressure sensitivity Pressure sensitivity is a property of individual brushes, and is only applicable if you're a pen tablet user wanting to: Using: retouch photos by painting out specific areas. Paintbrush Tool retouch photos by erasing specific areas. Standard Eraser Tool Background Eraser Tool retouch photos to lighten and darken areas. Dodge Tool Burn Tool creatively paint over photos for stylistic effect (e.g., Matte painting).
188 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets Using pen tablets You can either draw or paint with your mouse or, for a more natural experience, use a pen tablet. A pen tablet is comprised of an intelligent electronic pad equipped with pressure-sensitive input devices (e.g., Pressure Stylus and Eraser). A rectangular "active" area responds to pressure applied by that input device.
Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets 189 The studio offers: a practice area for automatically calibrating your tablet's input devices (Pressure Stylus, Eraser, Airbrush, etc.) by drawing soft/firm strokes. Manual calibration for fine-tuning is also possible. As you swap between each device (e.g., between stylus and eraser) the pressure response curve for that device is displayed accordingly. Management of pressure response profiles.
190 Pressure sensitivity and pen tablets Function key assignment If your pen tablet is equipped with ExpressKeys (or equivalent), Pressure Studio lets you assign your tablet's keys to PhotoPlus tools. The studio changes depending on the type of pen tablet installed, so you'll get an accurate representation of your pen tablet's key layout shown within Pressure Studio's Functions tab. Example of Wacom Intuos 3's ExpressKey assignment in PhotoPlus.
11 Printing and Exporting
192 Printing and Exporting
Printing and Exporting 193 Printing For basic printing primarily to desktop printers, Print Studio offers an exciting, comprehensive, and versatile printing solution for your photos. The easy-to-use studio environment lets you select from a variety of print templates, each designed for either single- or multi-image printing.
194 Printing and Exporting For any mode, you can also create your own custom template from an existing template. Currently open documents will be used for printing, although you can add more directly within Print Studio. To print (using templates): 1. Click the Print button on the Standard toolbar. The Print Studio appears. 2. From the right-hand templates list, select a template category, e.g. Single Images (Portrait). 3.
Printing and Exporting 195 For Print Layout templates, right-click a gallery thumbnail and select Fill Layout with Image. All occupied or empty cells in your layout are replaced. Alternatively, to fill an individual cell, drag a replacement image from the lower image gallery onto the "target" cell. A print layout’s cells need to be manually populated; other modes will autopopulate cells. For Contact Sheet templates, use the Distribution option in Image Options to control image replacement. 5.
196 Printing and Exporting To print using your own layouts: 1. Click the Print button on the Standard toolbar. The Print Studio appears. 2. From the Mode drop-down list, select Single Image, Print Layout, or Contact Sheet. 3. In the Layout section, select a custom or standard print Size. 4. (Optional) Follow image sizing and rotating instructions described above. To store the current page layout with images: Click Save Layout... on the image gallery.
Printing and Exporting 197 Sizing and rotating images in cells The Print dialog helps you size or rotate your image(s) to fit a cell(s) according to Image Options settings. When the dialog is opened, the default settings above will be adopted. It's likely that some fine tuning might be needed, e.g. a portrait image may best be rotated to fit a cell of landscape orientation. If further images are added from the image gallery, they will also adopt these settings.
198 Printing and Exporting Rotate for best fit You can re-orient your image to fit cells using the Rotate for best fit check box—great for fitting a portrait image into landscape-oriented cells (and vice versa). Rotate for best fit unchecked Rotate for best fit checked Cropping images in cells If you're looking to be more specific about which areas of your image to print, you can crop your image instead of using the above Image Options.
Printing and Exporting Before 199 After Unconstrained Cell Image (default) Custom (e.g., 1.00 x 1.00 in) 3. Drag a crop area's corner to size your crop according to requirements, then move the grid around the image to choose the preferred image area to be cropped. To revert, click Clear to reset your crop grid. 4. Click OK.
200 Printing and Exporting If your image is already present in your layout then it will update automatically to reflect the new cropping applied. If it hasn't yet been used, the crop is still applied to the image in the image gallery. Cropping affects every instance of the image. Once applied, all images are updated. Setting viewing options The following global viewing options will be applied to every page.
Printing and Exporting 201 popular printing method compared to electronic PDF publishing (using PDF/X1 compliance). See PhotoPlus help for more details. Publishing a PDF file PDF (Portable Document Format) is a cross-platform file format developed by Adobe. In a relatively short time, PDF has evolved into a worldwide standard for document distribution which works equally well for electronic or paper publishing. PDF documents are uniformly supported in the Windows, Macintosh, and UNIX® environments.
202 2. Printing and Exporting Set basic output options on the dialog’s General tab (shown). Checking Fit to complete page or Fit to page width to set the default page view when the PDF is opened in Acrobat Reader. Checking Preview PDF file automatically opens the PDF in a compatible PDF viewer after it’s been created, so you can review it immediately. (If anything looks amiss, you’ll need to fix the problems in the file and regenerate the PDF.
Printing and Exporting 203 Exporting to another file format In many situations, you’ll want to save a file to one of the standard graphics formats. In PhotoPlus, this is known as exporting. Exporting an image means converting it to a specified graphic file format other than the native PhotoPlus (.SPP) format. This flattens the image, removing layer information. Only the .spp and the Photoshop .
204 Printing and Exporting The Export Optimizer consists of a left-hand preview display (single, dual, or quad) and a right-hand settings region, with additional View and Zoom buttons along the bottom of the dialog.
Printing and Exporting 205 To adjust the preview display: To change the display scale, click the dialog's Zoom Tool and then left-click (to zoom in), right-click (to zoom out) on the preview, or choose a zoom percentage in the lower left in the drop-down list. You can also select a specific area by dragging a marquee around an item of interest. To display a different portion of the image, first select the dialog's Tool, then drag the image in the active preview pane.
206 Printing and Exporting To preview an image in your web browser: Choose Preview in Browser... from the File menu. PhotoPlus exports the image as a temporary file, then opens the file for preview in your web browser. Sharing documents by email PhotoPlus lets you send your currently selected document (or JPG) to your standard email program (e.g., Outlook) for subsequent mailing. You can do this by choosing Send...
12 AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started
208 AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started
AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started 209 Organizing photos AlbumPlus Organizer is Serif's powerful photo management application that can be used alongside PhotoPlus. From your collection of photos you can create your own named photo albums and perform a range of management and searching operations. For more information, see Managing your photos (p. 223) and Searching for photos (p. 255).
210 AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started In PhotoPlus, if you save a photo previously launched from AlbumPlus Organizer using Save As... (File menu), you'll be asked if you want to add the new photo into AlbumPlus Organizer. Creating a new album To help you get started quickly on your photo album, AlbumPlus comes equipped with a simple two-step Startup Wizard. This will set up your album project name and its location on your computer and optionally add photos automatically to your album.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started 2. 211 In Step 1 of the wizard, enable Create new album, choose an album name and a location for your proposed album file, e.g. C:\Photos\2010\. Your album name is based on a standard prefix “My Album” and, if the album name already exists, an additional “[0]”, “[1]” ,“[2]” etc. Of course, you can replace the album name with your own choice—as we’ll see later. Your album will always be saved in the Serif AlbumPlus (*.sap) format.
212 AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started In the Search text box, select the drive/device containing your media files from the drop-down menu; choose the Browse... button at the bottom of the list to navigate to your folder location. In the For text box, select the type of file to be added from the dropdown menu.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started 2. From the dialog, navigate to the AlbumPlus file you want to open. 3. Select the file and click the Open button. 213 Album View Album View allows you search for photos on the basis of their previously assigned tags, e.g. Vacations and Hobbies. An easy-to-use Tags pane lets you click the tag name(s) of interest to display your matching photos in an adjacent main Photos pane. Easy retrieval of such categorized photos makes this a key feature of AlbumPlus.
214 AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started It's also possible to search for photo comments, ratings, import history, and inherent photo properties by using the Search button on the main toolbar. Adding photos to your album Media is linked to an album in AlbumPlus—the media remains stored in its original location.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started 215 Option File types included Common Media Files Includes all Image, Audio, or Video files listed below All Image Files bmp, cur, emf, gif (includes animated), ico, img, j2k, jp2, jpeg, jpg, pcx, png, tif, tiff, wmf, spp (Serif PhotoPlus files).
216 AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started CD Import As photos are linked to an album in AlbumPlus, a CD Import dialog provides a Copy item to hard drive option to copy photos onto the hard disk—this makes the photos available at all times. If the check box remains unchecked, then photos are still added to your album but will remain on your CD/DVD. To add photos from a CD/DVD: 1. Follow either the standard Windows or bulk procedure described above. 2.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started 217 Autoplay Your computer may have Autoplay enabled which means it will be able to detect any new photo content being introduced to your computer from removable devices, e.g. when a CD/DVD is inserted into your CD/DVD reader, or when you plug in a USB flash drive. A dialog box will automatically be displayed, irrespective of whether AlbumPlus is open or not. 1. Select the option Import Media into Photo Album. AlbumPlus is launched automatically if not already loaded.
218 AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started The user is informed of any of the above by the display of an Import Report dialog. This will only be displayed if an error occurs. A tree display will indicate error counts for duplicate, corrupt and invalid photos (not shown). In the above example, for Duplicate Photos, the parent photo listed above the child photo is not added to the album, as the child photo already exists.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started 219 To add photos from your camera, scanner or removable USB drive: Get Media button on the main toolbar. 1. Click the 2. From the drop-down menu, select Add photos from other sources. 3. From the dialog, select a source for your files (if more than one source exists). The following example imports photos from a Canon IXUS 800 IS digital camera. 4. Enter a Name, e.g. Photo, which will make up the file name of each added photo.
220 AlbumPlus Organizer: Getting Started
13 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos
222 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 223 Selecting thumbnails Before looking at each of the operations that can be used to manage your photos it’s worthwhile familiarizing yourself with the different options available for selecting thumbnails. Selection is the pre-cursor to performing an operation. The main methods of selection are: Single click: If you hover over a thumbnail with your mouse, a thin border will appear around your thumbnail.
224 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos Alternatively, you can choose a function without selecting any photos at all. AlbumPlus will assume that the requested action (e.g., Slideshow, rotate, print, and email) will be applied to only the current photos in view (excluding photos not visible in the window). Thumbnail styles The media files that appear in any AlbumPlus mode will be displayed as thumbnails representing the original media.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 225 My Projects Slideshow Project Calendar Project Photo Album Project Greetings Card Project Postcard Project Print Project Flash Slideshow Project If an operation is being performed on a photo, a padlock symbol may appear in the top-left corner of the thumbnail (the thumbnail will also be grayed out). Once the operation is complete the item is unlocked and the padlock icon will disappear.
226 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos Thumbnail details 'on': Thumbnails can be displayed with or without the extra detail—the default thumbnail style is Thumbnail Details on. A - Caption (or filename if no caption exists) B - Media type C - Tags D - Photo date E - Geo-Tagged - click to switch to PhotoMap View F - Photo time G - Star rating H - Comment marker Additional information is displayed alongside the thumbnail.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 227 Thumbnail details 'off': This view is useful if you want to quickly see your album photos and you don't need the additional information. In the Display menu, select or clear the Thumbnail Details option to toggle the thumbnail details view. To view photo information: Click Display on the main toolbar and select Photo Information from the drop-down list to view file names/locations, file sizes, metadata, comments, tags, histogram, and EXIF information.
228 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos Click the list. OR Display then click Thumbnail size and choose a size from Use the keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+1, +2, and +3 for Small, Medium and Large respectively. With a thumbnail selected, use the magnification slider in the Status Bar to zoom in or out. Alternatively, click on the Zoom In and Zoom Out icons for magnification in increments. The aspect ratio for each thumbnail is maintained.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 229 To change photo order: Display on the main toolbar and then click Sort. 1. Click 2. Select a different sort type. 3. (Optional) To reverse the order, select Descending. Rating your photos Any photo can be allocated its own star rating. This is really useful when you want to categorize your favorites—assign a rating to your photos and subsequently search for your photos by rating in combination with other tags. See Searching by Rating, p. 259.
230 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos To rate your photos in Full Screen View: Full Screen View. 1. In any mode, click 2. On the toolbar, click the desired star rating, e.g. To unassign a star rating: Right-click the selected thumbnail(s) and choose Ratings>Clear from the flyout menu. Changing dates and time When Thumbnail Details are on, the date and time is displayed beneath the thumbnail.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos To change a photo date: 1. Click on the date display in the lower left corner of the thumbnail. 2. Click the down arrow to display a calendar flyout. 3. Click the date that you want to set for the photo. (You can navigate to different months of the year using the left and right arrows.) 4. Click away from the thumbnail to save the change. To change a photo time: 1. Click the time display in the lower right corner of the thumbnail. 2.
232 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos Changing time zones Suppose you’re on vacation and in your excitement you forget to adjust the time settings on your digital camera upon arrival—assuming you’ve gone somewhere hot, sunny and far away! You’ve returned home to find that the date and time settings are incorrect.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 233 The Relative date/time adjustment is better when adjusting multiple images in one batch as it preserves the time differences between each image. Instead of the default Photo Time, you can also update times for different time types (i.e., Album Time, File Creation Time, or File Modified Time) via the Type drop-down menu. Adding captions You can add a caption to any of your photos or projects quickly and easily from the Photos pane.
234 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos Adding comments and file information to photos Why would you add comments? You may already be using tags to identify your photos (see Using the Tags pane on p. 245) but comments can add more detailed photo-specific notes about the file.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 235 To view/edit comments/file information in a photo: View the Photo Information dialog as described above, then if necessary edit any Title, Subject, Authors, Copyright, or Comment accordingly, then click away from the field. While it is very useful to be able to read the comments or file information associated with each thumbnail in the Photos Pane, the real power is in the ability to search by metadata and comments. See Searching by Text on p. 261.
236 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos Full Screen View In Full Screen View, you can manage your photos while viewing them at full size. In this view, it is possible to rotate, flip, tag and rate your images. You can even delete them from the album! To enter Full Screen View: Click OR Click Full Screen View on the status bar. Display and select Full Screen View from the drop-down list.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 237 Displays two photos side by side, in a split screen mode—each with independent control. Displays two photos, one above the other, in a split screen mode—each with independent control. Zoom to fit the screen. Zoom to actual size. The current level of zoom. Zoom out. The zoom level can also be controlled by the slider. Zoom in. When selected, the pan and zoom level is synchronized between both photos in split screen view. Set the star rating on the photo.
238 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos Viewing and editing photos in split screen mode In the split screen modes, each photo can be viewed and edited independently. To edit a photo: 1. Click to select the photo you want to change. A blue border will appear. 2. Click the relevant toolbar button. 3. The selected photo will be updated. Synchronized pan and zoom When the Pan and Zoom Sync button is selected, the pan and zoom level of the dual screens are 'locked' together.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 239 You'll get a confirmation message asking if you want to delete your photos from disk. If Yes is selected, your photo(s) will be sent to your recycle bin (restore from there if you want to revert). Copying and moving photos AlbumPlus includes the ability to copy and move photos to new folder locations, without affecting any assigned photo information (tags, ratings, etc.) within the current album.
240 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos To flip a selected photo: Fix & Enhance on the main toolbar. 1. Click 2. Click OR Flip Horizontal to flip the image horizontally. Click Flip Vertical to flip the image vertically. Creating panoramas If you have Serif PanoramaPlus installed, you can create seamless panoramas from your photos. To create a panorama: 1. In the Photos pane, select the photos that you want to 'stitch' together. 2. Click Create & Share, then click Panorama. 3.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 4. 241 You can modify your panorama with the following options: Click Stitch to create a panorama from selected source files. Note: You only need to do this if you change the selection within Panorama studio. Click Rotate Left for counter-clockwise rotation in 90° intervals. Click Rotate Right for clockwise rotation in 90° intervals.
242 5. AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos Click Close to exit the studio. Your new panorama is displayed in the Photos pane. File management Most users would normally store their media content on their computer’s hard disk drive (HDD), and consequently add photos to albums from there. However, it’s also possible to add photos to albums that are stored on removable media such as CDs and DVDs.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 243 4. Click Yes (selecting No will abort the operation). 5. The Insert CD(s) dialog is displayed, which indicates the CD(s), along with unavailable items, which need to be inserted. Insert the CD. 6. The operation chosen will continue as if the image is stored on your hard drive. Using multiple CDs AlbumPlus lets you fully utilize all CD drives available to you.
244 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos After inserting the “Flowers” CD the flowers photos are made available for use (and removed from the list) but photos on the “Fireworks” CD are still unavailable. Subsequently, inserting the Fireworks CD will automatically resolve this, and remove the dialog.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 245 Photo Cache: Specifies the pixel size for low resolution caching. A lower setting reduces the disk space requirements for the cache and increases the speed at which the thumbnails load. Archive: Specifies the interval at which you are prompted to archive your AlbumPlus projects. If archiving is not required, uncheck the box. Autosave: Sets the interval period between each autosave of your AlbumPlus project file. If autosave is not required, uncheck the box.
246 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos A - Create new tag entry B - Delete tag entry C - Show photos with this tag (click to select) D - Don't show photos with this tag (ctrlclick to select) E - Tag icon F - Tag name G - Expanded view H - Collapsed view I - Mouse over to see the number of photos with this tag
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 247 When a previously tagged photo is imported, you can also import the associated tags. This can either create new tags or map to existing tags. See Importing Tags in AlbumPlus Organizer Help for more information. To navigate the search tags: In the Tags pane, click to see more tags. To see fewer tags, click . To create search tags: Add Tag button at the top of the Tags pane. 1. Click the 2. The current tag structure is displayed. Click list. 3.
248 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos To delete a tag: In the Tags pane, select the tag and click Delete Tag. When you delete a tag from the Tags pane, it does not remove that tag from the associated images. Tags must be manually detached from any image that they are assigned to. To reorganize search tags: You can reorganize your tags by clicking on the tag name and dragging the tag entry to its new location while holding down the mouse button.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 249 Tag icons Every tag that is created can be assigned a unique icon. These appear on the lefthand side of the photo thumbnail when details are turned on, and give a quick visual reference when viewing your photos in the Photos pane. Any tag that doesn't have an icon assigned will be represented by a 'paper tags' icon. This icon is also used to represent multiple tags when there are too many to fit next to the thumbnail. To assign a tag icon: 1.
250 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos Understanding metadata The main strength of modern photo albums comes in their support for various metadata types, all intended to report the photo and file information that will help identify your photo. Three of the most popular metadata formats, EXchangeable Image File (EXIF), International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) and the eXtensible Metadata Platform (XMP), are supported within AlbumPlus.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos 251 To display XMP metadata for a selected photo: 1. Display and then select Photo Information from the drop-down Click list to open the Photo Information dialog. 2. Click at the top of the dialog to show XMP metadata for the selected photo. To modify metadata, click to the right of any Title, Subject, Authors, Copyright, or Comment and type or edit the text in the displayed white box.
252 AlbumPlus Organizer: Managing Photos To display EXIF data for a selected photo: 1. Click Display and then select Photo Information from the drop-down list to open the Photo Information dialog. 2. Click , and then click the Exif tab to view EXIF data arranged into name/value fields. IPTC IPTC is an older metadata format (used for news organizations and photo agencies) which contains photo details (including captions, keywords, credits, copyright, photo location and time).
14 AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos
254 AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos
AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos 255 Searching for photos A range of diverse methods to search for photos exist within AlbumPlus: Tag: Photos are retrieved by matching tags previously assigned to your photos. Media Type: This searches for different media formats. Rating: Searches for personal ratings assigned to your photos. Import History: Retrieves photos from photo import session logs.
256 3. AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos Click to select the box next to a tag name to include that tag. It will display a green check mark , e.g., all photos tagged with "Children". OR Select multiple tag entries to perform multi-tag searches, e.g., all photos tagged with "Children" and/or "Pets". OR Ctrl-click to select the box next to a tag name to exclude that tag. It will display a red cross , e.g., all photos tagged with "Children" but not the ones that also include the "Pets" tag. 4.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos 257 Refining a multi-tag search The Match All Tags or Match Any Tags options shown after a multi-tag search (see example below) indicates the search results for a) photos containing all selected tags, or b) photos containing one or more of the selected tags (default behavior). Using the "Family and Friends" example above, Match All Tags displays photos tagged with both "Children" AND "Pets" tags.
258 AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos Unassigned status The Unassigned tag will let you view photos that have no tags assigned. This can be used to separate your "processed" photos from "unprocessed" photos—newly imported photos will often not have assigned tags. As you process your photos you can keep checking the unassigned status to check your progress. Searching by media type Search for specific media types such as Photos, Audio, Video, AlbumPlus projects, or any combination thereof.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos 259 Searching by rating Search for photos with a particular "star" rating level. You can refine your search to show items matching "at least", "at most" or "exactly" the number of stars set; you can equally just limit the search to unrated items. Stars have to be assigned to photos in advance, as described in Rating your photos on p. 229. To search for photo ratings: Search button on the main toolbar. 1. Click the 2.
260 AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos Searching by import history An import history search lets you display specific photo import sessions used to previously build up your current photo album. The set of thumbnails shown in the Import History box on the Search toolbar represents either the last set of photos imported (by default) or a previous session that you specifically want to search on.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos 261 4. Highlight an entry in the list (as shown above) to view that session only. Remember multiple log entries can be grouped or selected one-by-one via Shift-click or Ctrl-click, respectively. 5. Click the OK button. The Clear button deselects any highlighted log entries. This means that filtering will not take place when the OK button is selected.
262 AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos To search for specific metadata (file information, IPTC or EXIF), tags, path names, file names, and/or slideshow names: button to check the option(s) you wish to search on. 1. Click the accompanying 2. (Optional) Check the Case sensitive box to limit the search to match uppercase/lowercase characters exactly. 3. For multiple words and phrases, check either Search for all words or Search for any words.
AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos 263 For example: This will show you all photos in your album in excess of 5 Megabytes. This will enable you to keep track of your high resolution digital photos (e.g., those in RAW format).
264 AlbumPlus Organizer: Searching for Photos Searching by date The Search feature lets you search for dates when photos were taken, files created or files modified most recently or over a specified time period. In addition, searches can be made on dates on which photos were added to your photo album. To search by date: Search button on the main toolbar. 1. Click the 2. On the Search toolbar, select the More option and click the 3. Click the Filter by Date tab. 4.
15 Index
266 Index
Index .AVI format, 179 .GIF format, 179 .HDR format, 84 .PSD format, 20, 203 .PSP format, 20 .
268 Index combination buttons for lines, 146 for paths, 156 for selection, 92 for shapes, 146 Conical (gradient fill), 138 copying, 101 correction (of images), 51, 57, 60 counter-clockwise Twirl Tool, 83 Crop to Selection command, 106 Crop Tool, 103 cropping, 4, 61, 104 curves, 62 custom brushes, 130 canvas sizes, 19 colors, 125 Cut/Copy commands, 101 cutouts, 114 Deform Tool, 108 deforming, 110 meshes, 110 selections, 96 depth maps, 41, 80 Deselect command, 92 digital cameras, 26 Disable Mask command, 47
Index Freehand Pen Tool, 149 GIFs animated, 179 Gradient Fill Tool, 138 gradients, 138 graphics tablet, 129, 188 HDR Merge, 84 HDR Photo Merge, 17, 84 Histogram tab, 119 Histograms, 119 hotspots (image maps), 163 HSL, 62 HTML for image maps, 162 for image slices, 161 hyperlinks for image maps, 162 for image slices, 161 image acquiring TWAIN, 26 creating new, 19 exporting, 203 fixing, 60 formats for Web, 206 opening file, 21 saving file, 26 sharing by email, 206 Image Cutout Studio, 5, 114 Image Map tools,
270 Index pixel opacity, 35 pixels, 35 macros, 167 copying, 172 modifying, 170 playing, 169 recording, 168 Magic Wand Tool, 93 Magnetic Selection Tool, 93 masking PhotoFix for, 64 masks, 44 filter, 71 PhotoFix, 65 Mesh Warp Tool, 110 mesh warping, 110 modes color, 123 Move Tool, 100 movies (AVI), 179 New Adjustment Layer command, 55 New Animation, 17, 19 New Image, 17, 19 New Layer command, 34 Node Edit Tool, 148 nodes (Mesh Warp Tool), 111 opacity, 32, 40, 45 selecting, 94 opening an image file, 21 optim
Index printing, 193 as PDF, 201 cropping to print sizes, 105 marks for, 200 professional, 200, 202 Promote to Layer command, 35, 101 Publish as PDF command, 201 QuickShape tools, 145 Radial (gradient fill), 138 Rasterize, 35, 145 raw formats, 20 Raw Studio, 22 rectangle drawing, 145 placing hotspot, 163 selecting, 92 red eye (removing), 4, 57, 61 registration, 3 resampling, 174 resizing, 103 images, 103 in bulk, 174 on export, 206 selection, 96 resolution, 103 changing (via Batch processing), 173 Retouch t
272 Index Solid fill, 138 special effects, 67 spot repair, 61 square drawing, 145 placing hotspot, 163 selecting, 92 Square (gradient fill), 138 stamping pictures, 130 standard layers, 32 Startup Wizard, 17, 19, 20 statistics in histograms, 119 Store Selection command, 96 Straight Pen Tool, 149 Straighten Tool, 59 straightening, 4, 58, 62 support, 2 tablet, 188 technical support, 2 text, 142 adjusting size and position of, 143 creating selection in shape of, 144 layers, 32, 142 typographic control, 143 us
Index dates changing photo, 231 searching for, 264 duplicates, 217 EXIF, 251 searching, 262 file management, 242 file names searching, 262 flipping, 240 Frequency bar, 257 Full Screen View, 236 get media, 214 GIF, 212 history searching, 260 import history, 260 reports, 217 IPTC, 252 searching, 262 JPG, 212 media types, 212 searching, 258 metadata, 250 searching, 262 PanoramaPlus, 240 panoramas, 240 creating, 240 path names searching, 262 photos adding, 214 changing order of, 228 copying/moving, 239 date ma
274 Index thumbnails adding captions to, 233 assigning tags to, 248 changing order of, 228 removing tags from, 248 resizing, 227 selecting, 223 styles for, 224 time zones, 232 times changing photo, 231 unassigned photos, 258 viewing your photos, 235 full screen, 236 views Album View Mode, 213 XMP, 250
