Enhancing Portrait Skin Tones - Diffuse Glow and Flatten Uneven Areas Filters
| PhotoImpact 8 introduced two new filter effects, Flatten Uneven Areas and Diffuse Glow, that combine well for enhancing portrait photographs. The effects produce a soft, smooth finish to the skin, with nice highlights. This tutorial was produced with PhotoImpact 8, but is also applicable to later versions. |
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To start, copy the original image (Edit>Copy), then use Paste As Object to place another copy above the original (Edit>Paste>As Object). |
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You can preview the effect on your image by clicking the Preview button on the dialog box. Click OK when happy with settings.  |
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Because the filter effect was applied to the whole layer object, some areas where the effect is not wanted, for example, the eyes and mouth, need to be removed to allow the unaffected underlying base image to show through. This can be done using the Object Paint Eraser Tool.  |
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 With the duplicate layer object selected, click the Eraser Tool on the PI Toolbar. Set the brush size and any other related settings as required, then use the mouse to erase areas where the Flatten Uneven Areas effect is not required. The areas erased in this example can be seen in the image shown left. The Brush attributes for the Object Paint Eraser Tool can be set or changed in the Brush Panel. Here you can adjust the brush size, shape and softness as required. You may it find useful to adjust the brush attributes accordingly as you work on different areas of the image.
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Click on Effects>Photographic>Diffuse Glow. This opens the dialog box shown left. In this example, settings of 20 (Threshold), 2 (Degree of glow) and 0 (Graininess) were used. Glow colour was set to white (the default). As with Flatten Uneven Areas, try experimenting with different settings until you obtain the effect that best meets your requirements. Again, you can preview the effect on your image by clicking the Preview button on the dialog box. Click OK when happy with your settings, then save the file as required. |
An example photo using Flatten Uneven Areas and Diffuse Glow filters is shown left. 
With the new layer object selected, open the Flatten Uneven Area dialog box (Effect>Blur>Flatten Uneven Area). This opens the dialog box shown left. The left thumbnail shows your start image, while the right thumbnail shows the applied effect with the selected settings. In this example, settings were 8 (Low Pass), 8 (High Pass) and 3 (Filter). Increasing the numbers increases the strength of the effect. Try experimenting with different settings until you obtain the effect that best meets your requirements.
Posted by Webmaster at July 28, 2005 07:46 PM
