Tutorial: Image Editing with PhotoFiltre
NOTE: This tutorial is graphic intensive with many screen shots from WavePad. Please be patient as it loads the first time.
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Often, when you begin working with images in a digital story, you quickly discover that you want to begin manipulating images. Perhaps you want to crop some ugly scenery out or you want to add two or three images on one slide. Maybe you are telling a story about something that happened many years ago and you want all the images to look aged. Or you want to cut an object out of one image and place it on another one for a humorous effect.
While these may sound complicated, image editing software can make every image look better. Some commercial programs can be very expensive and rather difficult to learn - but PhotoFiltre is an excellent option for educators and students.
PhotoFiltre is a complete image retouching program. It will allow you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a generous range of filters that will give the image various "looks." Best of all, it is simple and intuitive to use, and has a remarkably easy learning curve. The toolbar, giving you access to the standard filters with just a few clicks, gives PhotoFiltre a robust look.
PhotoFiltre is free for private, non-commercial or educational uses. It looks as though PhotoFiltre releases their old versions for educational users and sells the latest version at a very reasonable cost, if you are interested in a few more features. For general purposes, most users will be perfectly content with the free version. And certainly, it is fantastic for schools.
Go to the PhotoFiltre website to download your copy of the program, looks that the tutorials and get ideas. Your imagination will be your only limitation.
Once you have installed PhotoFiltre, take a look at the tutorial below. Because it is so easy to learn, these tutorials will only be provided to get you started and will not be an exhaustive manual for using the program. Also, depending upon which version you have, you will see some slight variations - but for the most part, this tutorial will get you started on a fun journey.
Step 1: Getting Familiar with PhotoFiltre
Figure 1.1
The brief description of the feature is indicated below or beside the icon. This is the top bar of the PhotoFiltre desktop:
Figure 1.2
This is the bottom bar of the PhotoFiltre desktop:
Figure 1.3
This is the sidebar of the PhotoFiltre desktop:
Figure 1.4
If you use your mouse to hover over the icon, the description of the tool will be displayed:
Figure 1.5
Take some time to hover over a few of the icons so that you can see the description. However, remember - one of the best (and most fun) ways to learn what the tool bars do is to try them out. If you don't like an effect, click on the Undo button and try again.
Now, let's see how to get started.
Figure 2.1
Figure 2.2
You will now have the first image that you are going to practice on.
Figure 2.3
VERY IMPORTANT: You are going to be doing a lot of playing and you will probably make some goofs. Sometimes you cannot undo far enough back to get to the original. So, RIGHT NOW, click on Image>Duplicate or hold down the Control Key and press "U." This will make a duplicate of your original image. I recommend that you get into the habit of always doing this.
If you goof and "mess" up the original, just close it without saving and when you open the image again, the original will be there.
Now, using your copy, you are ready to begin playing.
In the image below - the entire image is selected. When you first open a image, the default is for the entire image.
The image to the left is the original. By clicking on the icon for Gray Scale (see descriptions above) the image suddenly becomes a beautiful black and white image - see the image on the right.
Figure 2.4
And that is as complicated as it gets. Now click on the Undo button, and try some of the other effects by clicking on the different icons.
Let's try a few things. If I click on the Brightness and Contrast icons, I can make the image a bit lighter. Notice you can see the girl a bit better.
Figure 2.5
Want a picture to go on a pink birthday party invitation. Click on Hue and Saturation and choose a pinkish color.
Experiment clicking on the various icons to see the different effects you can create with your images.
Figure 3.1
With filters, you can change the look of the image drastically. Click on any of the filters and apply it to an image to see your many choices. Most of the filters have a preview button so that you can see what your image will look like before you apply the filter.
If the preview box covers the image, just drag it to the side of image with your mouse. You can do this by clicking on the blue bar along the top of the preview box, holding down your mouse as you drag the preview box to the side.
Look at all the choices for Artistic. You can change an image into an oil painting, watercolor, charcoal, colored pencil, pastels and many others.
You can soften or sharpen an image.
You can revive colors, tarnish colors. add a night effect or colorize the image.
Filters allow you to add fog to an image or blur it for motion effect.
Another filter allows you to deform an image by changing it into a sphere, ripple it or even make a lake reflection.
You can stylize the image with a tile filter, make it look like a puzzle, mosaic, or crosspoint.
Each filter adds a different look to the image. Experiment a bit to see which filters make your image look interesting. Remember, if you don't like the way a filter looks when applied, you can always hit the Undo button. The images below show some of the filters applied to the image of the girl flying a kite.
Figure 3.2
Now take a look at what happens when you use the frame filters. Each frame creates a very different look when applied to the image. You often have choice of colors for the frame as well as level of opacity. If you have a lower level of opacity, you are able to see the image through the frame as in the middle example of framed images.
Figure 3.3
You can have some fun with PhotoMasque, also. This feature is so robust, that I am going to take you through a tutorial on how to use it. Please follow along in the next tutorial.
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Bytes are tutorials provided for the MTT program at
University of Texas at Brownsville.
©
2006 Janice Wilson Butler
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 2.5 License.