Operation
Photogenics works a little differently to conventional paint and image processing programs. When you apply paint to an image it is drawn into a separate 'paint layer' that is then combined with the image to give the image you see on screen. To permanently combine this layer with the image you need to FIX your changes making them permanent and clearing the layer so you can apply more effects. This system gives great flexibility for applying and removing paint and changing the effect/colour of the paint to see what the final result will look like.
To give an example, you may wish to alter the skin tone of a digitised
image of a friend. You could start by selecting a dark tone and drawing
over the face with the Tint effect. The affected area can be constantly
revised by adding/removing paint with the left and right mouse button.
After covering the whole face you may find that the tone is too dark.
At this point, before FIXing, you can alter the chosen colour or effect to
give different results. You may wish to try some of the special effects
such as Solarise to see what that would look like. All this is possible
with Photogenics. Once a satisfactory effect has been achieved then the
changes can be FIXed.
Transparency/Pressure
When applying paint, some effects can be too
obvious. Subtle effects can be achieved by increasing the level of
transparency allowing some of the original image to be seen underneath the
new paint. Transparency affects most of the program operation including
Compose. Transparency can be altered by opening the brush settings window
from the toolbar.
Secondary Buffer
Some effects require you to have a picture in the
secondary buffer, for example the RubThru paint mode - this enables you to
paint through from your selected image to the image in the secondary
buffer. You can select the image you want in the secondary buffer by
dragging the icon into the Secondary box in the images window (at the
bottom of the screen), or by selecting the image and pressing the '2' key.
Alpha Channels
An Alpha Channel is an invisible mask that sits
over your image. Any paint or effects you apply will only affect the parts
of the image not covered by the alpha channel. Paint will affect the
current image in proportion to the brightness of the alpha channel - dark
areas on the Alpha channel will prevent the paint showing through, light
areas will allow the paint to be visible.
See the tutorials section for information on how to use alpha channels.
Compose
Photo-montage (or image compositing) can be easily
achieved with the Compose function. You can use compose to take one image,
or cut part of that image out and paste it onto another. See the reference
chapter on Compose for further information.
Undo
Photogenics has an undo feature which allows the removal of previously FIXed changes. Selecting Undo a second time will replace the changes. Painting onto the image or any other operation will destroy the undo buffer.
Please note that this option has no effect on the paint layer!
Limited memory situations may make the undo feature impossible.
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