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Motivation:Review
Core Edits in Corel Essentials
Software: Corel Essentials
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The
before image |
The
after image |
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The first edit to a picture is usually to crop it down to size; but when the photo is underexposed as in this case, a brightness-contrast edit is the critical concern. An Image | Adjust | Brightness/Contrast/ Intenesity menu choice brings up the dialog box shown at the left. By picking up all of the controls the dark under exposure is removed revealing a fairly sharp photo with a suggestion of snow falling blurs... not too bad. So the next step is to sharpen the image just a little to pick up the falling "snow trails" with an Effects | Sharpen | Sharpen dialog. Try different Edge Level % and Threshold settings to get the right snow blur edge. Its easy and fast to Undo a Sharpening step - just hit CTL-Z or Edit | Undo. The goal is to move the edginess without losing the snow mantle/sweater look on the statues' bodies. Sort of like salt to taste. |
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The
next step is usually the first, crop the picture. But when the color
or sharpness is off - you may want to delay cropping until you can "see"
the whole picture. "Grooming" is the tasteful removal of distracting elements in a picture - "gardening" , its opposite, is the tasteful addition of embellishing elements to a picture. Originally, the light in the window just to the right of the first statue's white torso caught our eye when composing the image. |
| But now it appears to be neither fish nor fowl, and so using the Clone tool, it is easy to remove or "groom out" this distraction. Ditto for the white branch intruding from the mid right border. To do this in a photo development darkroom lab could take hours - its just a few seconds in PhotoPaint. | |
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The next step is to try and bring out more of the falling snow and the rich colors in the statues. The bronze castings mottled copper color is quite attractive. But to bring these colors out - it is necessary mask out the just the dark colors on the two men. Fortunately,the magic wand and lasso tools allow masking the exposed copper "skin" of the men quickly. Be sure to change masking to additive mode in the property bar; otherwise one masking edit will just replace the previous edit. The figure at the left shows the final masking with the mask outline indicated by the broken-line marquee. To bring out the colors we use the Image | Adjust | Tone Curve tool. This is one of our favorite tools for doing |
| fine
adjustments to a pictures color tones. But
in general, check the many options that
the Image | Adjust menu item affords for hue, brightness, saturation
and and other color corrections. The Tone Curve tool allows colors
in a specific
tonal range to be selectively brightened while leaving the rmainder of
the colors closer to their original brightness and/or saturation. Judging by the "after" image the copper and "snow trails" are brought up and the result is a pleasingly lively picture. However, others have might opt for a darker tone and just bypass this edit. As my Uncle Joe would say - each man to his own poison. |
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