Paint Shop Pro 7 Photo Enhancing Tools
Paint Shop Pro 7 has a whole
new Effects section that includes Photo Enhancing Tools. Below is a photo that
some might think is ok. To me it looks a little blurred, I don't like the dark
line about halfway down on the left side in the water and I don't like the
spotty-ness of the water around the trees in the foreground. Before Paint Shop
Pro 7 I would have had to use plug-ins to correct these things. With Paint Shop
Pro 7 all the tools I need are built right in. Some tools used here were in
previous version of Paint Shop Pro. I'll make note of the new tools as I use
them.
The first thing I want to do is
remove some of the blurry-ness in the image. I do this first because
"sharpening" a photo sometimes causes other distortions that need to
be fixed after sharpening.
The first tool I will use has
been in Paint Shop Pro for awhile and it is the Unsharp Mask. The unsharp mask
will make the photo more crisp. You have to be careful not to use to high of a
strength number or your image will start to look overexposed instead of crisper.
You can access the Unsharp Mask tool from Effects>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.
The next tool I will use is new
to Paint Shop Pro in version 7 and is called the Scratch Remover tool. You can
use this to remove annoying reflections such as that circled in the image below
in red.
The Scratch Remover tool can be
accessed from the toolbar
or from the Effects>Photo Enhance>Scratch Remover. When accessed from the
toolbar, you simply drag your mouse over the area you want to correct and
release the mouse when you have traversed the area to be corrected.
The next tool, the Clarify
tool, is also new in Paint Shop Pro 7. This is similar to using the Unsharp
mask. The Clarify tool helps to bring out the detail in a photo. You can access
the Clarify tool from Effects>Photo Enhance>Clarify. As with any
sharpening type of tool you want to be careful not to apply the effect too
strongly.
Now my image is starting to
shape up.
With all this Unsharping and
Clarifying my image has become spotty in some places, the worst of which is the
water I was already unhappy with.
I've circled in red the worst
places that I see.
To correct this spotty-ness
I've created by sharpening and clarifying the image I'll use another tool new in
Paint Shop Pro 7. This is the Salt and Pepper Filter than can be accessed from
Effects>Noise>Salt and Pepper Filter.
Using the freehand selection tool,
draw around the area you want to correct and then access the Salt and Pepper
Filter to correct the area.
Wow! You can see in the preview
above that my water is now nice and smooth without any spotty-ness.
The image below shows the final
product created using just Paint Shop Pro 7 to enhance a photo quickly and
easily.
The before an after side by
side really shows the difference in the image and that the powerful photo
enhancing tools that Paint Shop Pro 7 includes really do the job.
Before.....
After.....
