POTD - random

These aren't new photos - but I recently upgraded my desktop computer, and along with the upgrade also upgraded to PSP X4, which comes with a lot of new tools, including built-in Nik effects, HDR and tone mapping, tilt-shift style tool, and of course all my Topaz plugins. ; So mostly just to get a feel for how the new PSP works, and test how responsive the new computer is with processing, I spent some time playing around with old photos with all kinds of extreme processing. ; Not normally my 'style', but in this case, it was a good test bed for the computer and software, so I went more 'extreme'...and figured, why not share the results:

A little mix of Topaz Adjust, PSP tone mapping, and Nik color effects:
8FCDC4223DE346DE863FB9BD4A1DA8C7.jpg


Trying out the PSP tilt-shift tool - super-simple and fast, and quite effective:
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Nik color effects, with some PSP clarity tool and vibrance tool, and light tone mapping:
86E36CCF7EF04D0A8BE60475C31956C5.jpg


PSP has that strange photo smart crop tool like PS does - where it can resize or compress the photo by removing sections out of the middle of the photo fairly seamlessly - you tell it the section you want to remove, then hit the compressing tool, and it squeezes the photo together without changing perspective, size, etc - just removing the unwanted section. ; The original of this photo is here:
original.jpg


And here's with the smart crop tool, compressing the moon much closer to the ship:
E45ACAD8EF2B468BB89E9F4A3274D3C9.jpg


The new computer blazes! ; And the upgrades to PSP are quite good. ; I'll not likely use these tools quite to the extreme most of the time, but it certainly helped me become more familiar with the software and how it works.
 
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Cool, I'm going to have to see if my version of PShop has a smart crop tool. I never would have thought of it myself, but seeing your pics I can see how to do it manually too. Really like that toy airplane too! :-)
 
I believe Photoshop's version is called 'Content Aware Scale' - it started with CS4 and onwards. ; Now PSP has added it to X4. ; Very cool feature indeed - you just lasso or highlight the object, thing, or area you are wanting to lose, and then as you squeeze or scale the photo to the new dimensions - you can tell it certain content that you want to keep no matter what, or content you definitely can lose, and it will keep all the scale and perspective as before while squeezing the dimensions of the shot or objects.
 
Drat, I have CS3, so none of that content aware stuff for me. Guess I'll have to try it with layers and blending.

Erich
 
Erich, you might want to consider Photoshop Elements. ; Use it for the latest bells and whistles, but keep CS3 around for the heavy lifting.

Or just download a trial version of CS4. ; It's good for 30 days.
 
Looks like a good app, Scott - certainly Photoshop is a bit pricey compared to other programs you can find that can do much the same thing. ; PSP (Paint Shop Pro) X4 in fact is about 95% of the full photoshop CS functionality, but for under $100 - it's why I've always been a fan of PSP.

Just to clarify - the 'content aware' tool in photoshop, and the tool you mentioned, I think are a different thing than the 'content aware scale' tool that I'm referring to. ; This isn't a cloning tool or healing tool, but actually a photo resizer/cropper that allows the entire photo to be compressed smaller, squeezing out unwanted space or particular parts of the photo, and keeping things in the same scale or protected. ; Check out this video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGheH1KkXy0[/youtube]
 
Cool little App Scott.
Justin, very cool. There's so much now possible we're rapidly approaching the point where these tools are more like magic than photo manipulation.

Erich
 
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