PhotoImpact 8 Star Filter
PhotoImpact 8 offers photo enthusiasts
several exciting new filters, most notably the Star Filter.
It is perfect for adding a sparkling highlight to a photo
that needs a little something extra.
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- The Star Filter works best with an image that
has mostly darker tones with a few small, bright areas,
like this photo I took of my dragon statue. You can right
click and save this image to practice on for the tutorial.
Note the well-defined lighter areas in the crystal ball
he's holding in his front paws, on his horns, along his
body and in the water in the background.
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- Open the dragon photo up in the work space and
choose Effect, Photographic, Star Filter.
When the Star Filter dialog box opens, you'll see the original
image in the Before window on the left, and the default
Star Filter settings applied to the photo in the After window
on the right.
On the bottom right side of the dialog box are the Spike
Settings, from which you can edit the Brightness,
Length, Width and Spread Angle of the Spikes. The default
Width and Brightness are a bit high for this photo. It's
likely that you'll have to edit all of these settings,
depending on the image that you're using. For the dragon
photo, use these values.
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- On the bottom left side are the Filter Settings.
For example, you can edit the number of star Spikes. Variance
affects diversity in the length and direction of the spikes,
with higher values resulting in more variability. Luminosity
Threshold affects the amount of light areas in the image
to which stars will be applied. Higher values include more
of the image, while lower values include less of the image.
If you crank the Luminosity Threshold up too high, you'll
see nothing but blinding white stars, so be careful with
this one.
At the bottom of the filter Settings, Standard
Filter is selected by default. Select the other option,
PL Filter, which doubles the star spikes. When PL filter
is selected, you can rotate the duplicate star spikes
to create a fuller, brighter star. Try these Filter Settings
for the dragon photo.
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- Just to see its effect, try editing the Luminosity
Threshold down to 2, and watch what happens in the After
window. There will be stars only on the little crystal ball
and in the water sparkle in the upper right corner of the
After view. Edit the Luminosity Threshold to 3, and another
star appears on the horn. Edit the value to 5, and you'll
see the star on the dragon's side again. So you have a fair
amount of control over how many stars appear on the dragon.
When you have edited to your satisfaction, click the
Preview button to view the Star Filter applied
to the image. If you like the effect, click OK to apply.
If it's not quite right, click Continue to return to the
Star Filter dialog box. Edit and preview until you get
the effect you like, then click OK.
Finally, remember that you can apply any filter setting
to a selection area, if you prefer to have tighter control
over its effect. For example, to add a star to the crystal
ball only, you can make a round selection around it and
then tweak the Star Filter attributes.
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This is a sample tutorial from
Stephanie’s PhotoImpact Tutorial CD.
For more information visit: http://www.eastofthesun.biz/store.htm
Copyright © 2002 Stephanie Baker-Thomas
All Rights Reserved |
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