Making it Glamorous
Paint Shop Pro Photo XI is an image editing program that allows the photographer two options for image enhancement – one click, or the more complex route. The latter gives the photographer complete control over each step and teaches in the process for future reference. Let’s see how this works with a glamorous portrait…
Open your image in Paint Shop Pro Photo XI. If you don’t have a portrait you can use for this lesson, download the original jpeg image from www.total-image.com.au/corel and right click on the image called “Glamour”. It’s less than 1 MB so won’t take too long to download. What you will see is the unworked and original version of this final image you see here (left).
Now, you are ready.
Your first step is to check your levels are ok. Go to the menu at the top and click Adjust>Brightness and Contrast>Levels and set your white point and your black point at each end of the histogram. Now that you have that out of the way, you are set to begin your enhancements.
There are many one step enhancements in PSP Photo XI, but we are going to go the long way around, giving us more control over each step and revealing within the process what each of these steps accomplishes.
Make a duplicate layer of the image. Go to Layers>Duplicate. Now we are going to give the image its ‘soft but sharp’ appearance. Click on Adjust>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the softness to around 15. This may look a little too soft but there is good reason for this.
Now, go to the palette and grab the eraser tool. Make it a soft brush by using the settings at the top. Begin erasing the area around the eyes and mouth. If you do not have your layers displayed on the right of your screen go to View>Palettes>Layers and then change the opacity to 50. This blends the two images so that a ‘sharp but soft’ image appears. Then, go to Layers>Merge>Merge All (Flatten)
Of course, at this stage, you can leave the image right here. It looks good. But, hey, lets not. For this image, I decided I would try PSP’s colour changer to whiten the background. First, duplicate the layer again like we did at the beginning. Then go to the Palette at the side, find the Color Changer Tool. Make sure the Materials Palette is on your right and click the dropper on white. (The Materials Palette can be brought up by going to View>Palettes>Materials.) Using the Colour Changer tool, click on the background to make it white. You may need to play with the softness of the brush and the tolerance. If the colour is changed in an area you do not want it to change, simply erase those areas using the eraser tool in order to bring the unchanged image underneath to the fore. Then when you are finished, flatten these layers again.
Now we are going to mute the colours a little. Duplicate the layer again. Then, go to Effects>Photo Effects>Black and White Film. This tool will make the image black and white according to your preferences using coloured filters. This is how photographers who specialise in black and white highlight certain tones in their black and white images. Choose your preference – perhaps the yellow or the orange filters and click OK. You will now have a black and white image. Then, using the Layers on the right, change the opacity to around 50. This blends the colour layer and the black and white layer and gives you a unique muted colour effect. Flatten the layers just like we did before. Then, to give the image added punch, go to Adjust>Brightness and Contrast>Curves and create a soft ‘S’ shape to increase contrast. Click OK and….your done.
Or are you?
Paint Shop Pro Photo XI is filled with options. You can enhance the image even further using so many of its built in effects. You can add frames, textures and text if you wish - among so many further finishing touches. For more information about Paint Shop Pro Photo XI go to www.corel.com.au. You can even download a trial version. Better yet, head out and buy yourself this amazing software.
Shelton Muller can be contacted via his website at www.photographybyshelton.com
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