ROSIE'S PHOTO FUN
(One picture combining 'Before & After'
the use of Effects in PhotoImpact)

TERMS OF USE: Please Read - Thank You!

French version

THE PHOTO

If you wish to use the photograph used in the tutorial, Right Click/Save Picture As on the photo opposite and then open this in PhotoImpact.

If you wish, you may used your own photograph but please note that you may need to vary the effects and the settings used to get the best out of individual photos.... but that's great because this tutorial is only meant as a guideline to encourage you to experiment!

CREATING AN EFFECT & MERGING

1. First of all make a second copy of the photo by clicking on Edit/Duplicate/Base Image Only. You should now have two copies of the photo open in PI.

2. Using the original copy, click on Copy and then Paste - which puts another copy on top of the original.

3. Now click on Effect/Artistic/Coloured Pen.

4. In the Coloured Pen box, change the Level setting 50. The optimum setting for this varies from photo to photo but is usually best between 50 and 70.

Click OK.

5. Right Click/Properties - and then under Merge, click on 'Addition'.

It is worth checking out what each Merge does to the picture because the Merge method you will like best will depend on the original picture and the level setting you chose in 3 above.

'Luminosity Only' can give very bright, sometimes stunning, results (particularly on pictures with a lot of detail) but for this particular picture I chose 'Addition' because I saw a use for it we'll see in a minute or two!

THE BEFORE & AFTER PIC

7. To make the 'Before & After' pic shown opposite - now Paste a copy of the treated photo on top of the duplication of the original photo.

8. Now click on Edit/Fade and use the right to left fade shown.

It is also worth checking the results of using different fades and reversing the two colours by clicking the double-arrow button between the colour boxes.

Remember - the black part of the fade will leave that area of your picture transparent and the white part will leave that area of your picture opaque.

Sometimes a circular fade can be very effective but you may have to alter the percentage sliders to get a big enough area to show your effect clearly.

EXPERIMENT is the name of the game here!

WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?

9. If you are happy with your result, you could Right Click/Merge All and leave it there... or...

10. You could drag the faded picture to another canvas (see left).

11. Reduce it in size, to say 125W x 100H pixels, run it through a filter such as the Simple/Quick Tile filter (obtainable here ) and use it as a background...

(Click on the small picture left to see this tiled as a background)

12. ...or you could use it as part of a stationery (or sig-tag) background.

(Click on the longer picture to see this)

In this picture, before merging the faded picture with the original photo at the end, I used the Object Paint Eraser on a High Transparency (around 80%) to erase some of the flower centers as well - thus mixing the treated and faded photo with the original even more.

This one had a combination of the Coloured Pen Effect at a high level (80%), combined with a Merge on Luminosity Only.

I brightened the result using Format/Brightness & Contrast and then sharpened the result.

Finally I added a right to left fade and merged it with a copy of the original photo.