Adjusting the color tones of your printer to produce a particular image is a matter of trial and error and personal judgment.. Artistically Colorizing Your PhotosOne of the best ways to
Trang 1The actual adjustment process can be a bit tricky initially For example, if you decide your photo is a bit too green, it’s not quite as simple as merely adjusting the
magenta-green slider You have to adjust some of the other colors too For example, if
you decrease the magenta-green level, you actually have to increase the cyan-red and yellow-blue levels manually by half as much to keep all the colors in your photo in balance
Table 10-1 summarizes the adjustments you need to make to keep the colors of your photo in balance
Blue tone (common with digital cameras) Decrease the blue; then increase both the red and the
green by half the amount you decreased the blue Decrease the red; then increase both the blue and the green by half the amount you decreased the red.
the blue by half the amount you decreased the green.
TABLE 10-1 Color-Balancing Adjustments
Adjusting Your Printer Tones
Although your scanner and computer monitor use the red-green-blue primary color group to create images, your printer uses a different scheme Most color printers (and professional printing presses) apply dotted layers of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) If you find that your printed copies are off-color based on what appears on your monitor, you can tweak them using the color correction filter
You should be aware, however, that CMYK can’t precisely replicate the vibrant colors you see on your monitor Printed images always appear a little duller than the ones on your computer screen
Adjusting the color tones of your printer to produce a particular image is a matter
of trial and error and personal judgment Since you can never exactly match what appears on screen, you need to produce the colors in a way that appears representative and pleasing to your eye
Cyan, magenta, and yellow have negative values, so you need to decrease the number to increase the value For example, a –28 rating is higher than a –2 or +28
rating Unlike RGB, you can work by adjusting one color at a time, without making simultaneous adjustments to the other two colors
Red tone (can be the result of artificial lighting or improper chemical processing)
Trang 2Artistically Colorizing Your Photos
One of the best ways to enhance a photo artistically is to apply color to it selectively
To determine which color tools your particular program has, search the Help menu using the keywords “color” and “tint.” Your program might have one or all of the following color tool options:
Tint an entire photo Tinting an entire photo sets a mood and makes an artistic statement in itself The color insert illustrates several examples of the dramatic effect that can be achieved with a color tint
Convert a photo to black and white Some photo subjects such as old movie stars and jazz musicians actually look better in black and white You can create a black-and-white photo from a color one by applying a gray tint to the entire photo
Selectively apply color to portions of a photo After you’ve turned a color photo to black and white, try selectively colorizing and tinting portions of it Or experiment by adding sections of dramatic color to a photo that is already in color
to make a more dramatic statement
Adjust the opacity of the applied color Most image-editing programs allow you to make the color you apply appear more or less transparent A high opacity level means that when you apply the color, it will be opaque, and you might not be able to see the underlying color tones and details of the original image as well In contrast, colorizing an area using a low opacity level means that you’re effectively applying a transparent tint to the area
Trying Your Hand at the Drawing Tool
Drawing tools are often overlooked in the image-editing arsenal; however, they can be very powerful and produce high-impact effects Figure 10-36 shows an example where I’ve hand-drawn the black arrows pointing to the cow, as well as the spots, using filled and unfilled shapes
Your image-editing program might include the following drawing tools:
Freehand Allows you to draw lines of varying colors and thickness
Unfilled shapes These tools might allow you to draw squares, rectangles, ellipses, and other unfilled shapes with precision
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Trang 3FIGURE 10-36 This cow is modeling the effects of the PhotoSuite 4 drawing tools
Cutting and Combining Photos
One of the most powerful capabilities your scanner affords you is to combine content from multiple photos into a single image You might create cutout images that you can paste onto other photos and background scenes, or “stitch” several photos together to create a panoramic effect
Making a Cutout
A cutout is a portion of an image you cut from a photo and save to a file or the clipboard For example, I’ve made a cutout of the girl in the center of the photo in Figure 10-37 and pasted my cutout onto the photo background that appears in Figure 10-38
Trang 4FIGURE 10-37 Cutting tools allow you to transport an image or figure from one photo
to another
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Trang 5FIGURE 10-38 An image from one photo transplanted to another
Most image-editing programs allow you to create cutouts using a variety of tools PhotoSuite, for example, includes the following options for making a cutout:
Freehand cutting tool This tool allows you to trace around the edges of the image you want to cut out
Edge finder This tool is an improvement over the standard freehand cutting tool It allows you to click gently at intervals around the image you want to cut out, and automatically finds the border of the image It finds the edge of the photo
by identifying an abrupt change in the color value of the pixels that represents the border of an image
Cut to shape Rather than following the edge of your cutout, you can select a portion having a regular predefined shape, such as a rectangle or ellipse
Be sure to follow the directions provided in the Help menu or manual for your particular image-editing software for making a cutout In particular, pay careful attention to the steps for saving, cutting, and pasting the cutout There’s nothing more frustrating than losing an image you’ve spent 20 minutes painstakingly cutting out