Colour And Layer Adjustment

PaintShop Pro enables you to make massive amounts of adjustment to both layers and colour and this Masterclass tutorial will show you how to adjust both. We are using PaintShop Pro as it is an easy to use package.

Open PaintShop Pro Go to the 'File' menu and Select 'Open' Click on the images and then click on the 'Open' button In one of the images, click on it and press 'Control' and 'C' to copy Click on the second picture and go to the 'Layer Toggle Palette' This will open up a dialogue box Double click on the background layer Name the background layer Click 'OK' Go to the Edit menu Select 'Paste as a new layer' Click on the 'Deformation' tool Use the grab handles to drag the image to size with the mouse Go to the 'File' menu and select 'Save As' Save it as a PaintShop Pro image

Things have to be saved as a PaintShop Pro image, as otherwise the program will merge all the layers together as one.

Toppers' tip: Double click images to promote them to a layer

Part 2:

PaintShop Pro was designed for colour adjustments and has a wealth of options to do this. It is best to do the colour adjustment before you do the layer adjustment.

Go to the 'Colour' menu and select 'Adjust' and then 'Brightness and Contrast' Use the zoom in or out buttons Tick the 'Auto Proof' button Use the slide rules to adjust the colours

Another option within the 'Adjust' menu is 'Hue Map,' you use them the same, all of them utilise the slide rules. You can get some outrageous effects, especially when you play with the light and brightness options. There are no rules with this program, you just have to play around with it until you find the effect you want.

Having made a change, if you saved it there would be no way of going back to the original image, by using an Adjustment Layer you are able to save the changes as a separate layer, meaning you will not loose the changes you have made.

Go to the 'Layers' menu and select 'New adjustment' Select the 'Brighten and Contrast' option In the dialogue box select the 'Adjustment' tab Use the slide rules to make a change Click 'OK' Name the new layer in the 'Layer Toggle Palette'

You can now change the order of the layers by grabbing one with the mouse and dragging it.

Part 3:

Another way of changing the colour adjustments is with the curve. Curve is under the same menu as the other colour adjustments.

Go to the 'Layers' menu and select 'New adjustment' Select 'Curve' Change the graph curve with the mouse Click 'OK'

One last effect you can do is to make certain effects transparent on not others.

In the 'Layer Toggle Palette' click on the 'Spectacles' icon