Photo Effects - To make you look like a photo professional

Photo Effects - To make you look like a photo professional

by Roger Wambolt

This tutorial has been written for CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X5. While similar features might be available in previous releases, the tutorial will be fully applicable to CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 only.

Corel® PHOTO-PAINT™ X5 has added three new features for modifying your photos. The Vibrance effect is great for balancing color saturation. It adds richness to colors with low saturation while maintaining colors with high saturation. TheGrayscale effect is ideal for removing the saturation of an object, layer or region of a photo. It also lets you choose the colors used in the grayscale conversion. The Photo Filter effect lets you simulate the result of having a camera lens filter installed when a picture was taken. We will also take a look at the Tone curve and how it can be used to enhance you photos. With these tools, the novice photographer can look like a professional!

What you will learn

In this tutorial you will learn about:

• Vibrance
• Grayscale Adjustment
• Photo Filter
• Tone Curve

Vibrance

The Vibrance filter allows you to increase the saturation in an RGB image without causing clipping or “blowing out” the image. Clipping occurs when an area of an image is too bright and the color details in the area are lost, which can occur when you increase the saturation in an image indiscriminately. The Vibrance filter adjusts saturation proportionally by increasing the saturation of the less-saturated colors more than that of the saturated colors. This filter is useful for adjusting the saturation of images that include a person in front of a detailed background. For example, it allows you to boost the saturation of the background details without adversely affecting the skin tone of the person in the image.

From the Adjust menu, select Vibrance. There are two sliders, one for Vibrance and another for Saturation. It is simply a matter of moving these sliders until you obtain a result that you are pleased with.

Grayscale

The Grayscale filter lets you produce a black and white image without changing the color mode. It also allows you to adjust individual colors for conversion, which modifies the intensity of the gray tones in the image when it’s converted. In addition, you can tint the image by modifying the hue and saturation. For example, you can add a tint to an image to produce a Sepia effect.

The Grayscale adjustment dialog box is a bit more involved than the Vibrance adjustment, however it is just as easy. Now, one point that I should make here is that using this feature to create a grayscale image, is not the same as going to Image > Convert to Grayscale. The Image > Convert to Grayscale creates an 8-bit image where Grayscale adjustment only works on 24-bit RGB images and after it is applied, the image is still 24-bit RGB.

From the Adjust menu, select Grayscale. You will be presented with a dialog box that allows you to preview a Before and After image. There are six sliders that adjust for the different color channels, RGB & CMY. If you choose to, you can also apply a tint to the image by selecting the Tint checkbox. This then gives you the further ability to adjust the Hue and Saturationslider.

Photo Filter

The Camera special effects let you simulate the effect produced by photographic filters, such as spot filters and diffusion filters. You can also add lighting effects, such as sun flares or spot lights. The Photo filter lets you simulate the effect of placing a colored filter in front of a camera lens. You can choose the color of the filter and then adjust the color density you also have the option to preserve luminosity.

Tone Curve

The Tone curve filter lets you perform color and tonal corrections by adjusting either individual color channels or the composite channel (all channels combined). Individual pixel values are plotted along a tone curve that appears in a graph and represents the balance between shadows (bottom of graph), midtones (middle of graph), and highlights (top of graph). The x-axis of the graph represents the tonal values of the original image; the y-axis of the graph represents the adjusted tonal values. 

The tone curve shows the balance between the shadows, midtones, and highlights of an image. The original (x) and adjusted (y) pixel values are displayed side by side when you drag the tone curve.

You can fix problem areas by adding nodes to the tone curve and dragging the curve. If you want to adjust specific areas in an image, you can use the Eyedropper tool and select the areas in the image window. You can then drag the nodes that appear on the tone curve to achieve the effect you want.

The histogram lets you view the adjusted tonal range and evaluate the results. For more information about histograms, see "Using histograms” in the Online help of Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

To fine-tune your adjustments, you can choose a curve style from the Style list box. For example, you can redraw the curve by using freehand lines or straight line segments.

You can adjust the color and tone of an image by applying a preset. To access a preset, click the Open button to the right of the Presets box. You can also save tone settings as presets to use with other images.

Whether you are a professional photographer looking to enhance your images, or an amateur looking for professional results, these effects are sure to make your images stand out. Take a few moments to play around with them and see just how easy and effective they can be.

Reducing the number of nodes in curve objects

Reducing the number of nodes in curve objects

The applications and features described in this tutorial require CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 or newer to be installed.

Did you know that you can automatically reduce the number of nodes in curve objects? Often, complex curve objects contain overlapping or redundant nodes that are not necessary for editing the object. By reducing the number of nodes in a curve object, you can more easily edit and prepare it for output to a variety of devices and file formats.

The steps below show you how easy it is to automatically reduce the number of nodes in a curve object without compromising the object's quality.

 
Figure 1
This curve object was created in another program and imported into CorelDRAW®.

Duplicate the object by pressing Ctrl + D, so that you can later compare the two curves.

Step 1: Select all nodes in the original curve object

1. Open the Shape edit flyout   , and click the Shape tool .
2. Click one of the objects.

Figure 2
The status bar, at the bottom of the program window, displays the number of nodes in the selected object.

Step 2: Reduce the nodes

1. Click the Select all nodes button  on the property bar.
2. Click Reduce nodes .

Figure 3

The number of nodes in the object has been significantly reduced.

Click anywhere in the drawing window to deselect the curve. Notice that the original object does not appear to be significantly altered. Next, we'll view the curve object in wireframe mode, in order to see the nodes more clearly.

Step 3: Display the curve object in wireframe mode

1. Using the Shape tool, click the object.
2. Click View > Wireframe.

Figure 4
Wireframe mode lets you view the nodes more clearly.

The Reduce nodes command removes overlapping and redundant nodes from the curve object, yet it allows you to retain the same level of control over the object. In our example, the original object (1) contains 154 nodes, whereas the edition version (2) contains only 101 nodes.

Interactive Fit Text to Path Tool

Interactive Fit Text to Path Tool

The applications and features described in this tutorial require CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 or newer to be installed.

Since CorelDRAW X3, it's easier than ever before to attach text to a path with precision — a common effect used in creating signs and logos. The interactive Fit Text to Path tool lets users simply select text, move the pointer along a path, and click to set the text's position. Users can also easily control the text's offset distance from the path.

In addition, users can scale the text after it has been placed on a path by simply selecting both the text and the path and dragging one of the handles.

Using the interactive Fit Text to Path tool

1. Click the Freehand  tool, and draw a curved line to use as a path.
2. Click the Text  tool, click anywhere in the drawing window, and type.
3. Click Text > Fit Text To Path.
   The pointer changes to the Fit Text to Path  pointer. As you move the pointer along the path, a preview of where the text will be fitted is displayed.
4. Move the pointer along the path, and click to fit the text.
   With a closed path, the text is centered along the path. With an open path, the text flows from the point of insertion.
5. On the property bar, adjust the value in the Distance From Path list box.
6. On the property bar, adjust the value in the Horizontal Offset list box.
7. In the Mirror Text area on the property bar, use the Mirror Horizontal  or Mirror Vertical  buttons to choose the text's orientation.