In this video we'll look at several
tools you can use in PaintShop Pro to
improve the quality of your photos. In
particular we'll look at correcting fade,
brightness and fill light, color
saturation, noise removal, sharpness and
vibrancy. Before we get started, if you're
watching this video on YouTube you'll
find the link in the description below
that will take you to our tutorial page
on Corel's Discovery Center. Here you can
also download a written copy of this
tutorial along with the sample images
you can download to try out the steps
yourself. Down in my Organizer I have a
collection of images with various issues:
poor lighting, dark shadows, color or
light imbalances. I'll bring a few of
these into PaintShop Pro's Edit
workspace to see what can be done to get
them looking better.
I'll start by dragging up this one then
I'll click the pushpin to minimize the
Organizer. This image shows a relatively
bright and balanced sunset but the
foreground shadows are extremely dark. If
I look in the Adjust menu at Brightness
and Contrast
I can try the Brightness/Contrast tool.
But this lightens the image as a whole,
not differentiating between light and
dark areas, so I'll click Cancel. A better
choice here is Fill Light/Clarity. I have
Preview on Image checked so that I can
see real-time results. As I increase the
Fill light, more light comes into the
dark areas and the areas that were
already bright are left alone. I can also
bring up the Clarity to reduce the
haziness along the waterline. I can check
and uncheck the preview to compare
results with the original image and then
click OK. If I zoom into this dark area
the trees and rocks have a speckled or
dappled effect so I'll choose Adjust >
One Step Noise Removal. This makes the
rocks smoother, though a little blurry
and when I zoom out the overall photo
has a smoother look. I can undo this and
for a tool that gives me more control
I'll choose Adjust > Digital Noise Removal.
This gives me a side-by-side before and
after comparison
and I can adjust the Noise
Correction values.
A high correction blend smoothes and
blurs the speckled areas.
I'll click OK to see the results on the
entire image. To save the improved image
I would use File > Save As and use a
different file name so as not to replace
the original. I can perform similar steps
on this image. I can use Fill Light/Clarity
to bring in more fill light to
better see the boats.
Then I can try Adjust > White Balance.
I'll make the temperature a little
cooler to temper down the bright sky
then click Advanced Options and adjust
the white balance sliders at the bottom.
For the next example I'll bring in this
waterfall image.
the lower half is too dark, though the
sky at the top looks about right. A good
place to start with images like this is
Adjust > One Step Photo Fix which
brightens the entire image including the
sky. For greater control, I'll first undo
then I'll try Adjust > Smart Photo Fix.
This is another side-by-side tool where
I have lots of parameters to play with.
I'll click Suggest Settings for a
starting point then I'll increase the
overall brightness, add some highlights
and increase saturation to bring more
green into the landscape. Then I'll click
OK.
Next I'll work on this photo. Much of the
original color can be brought back with
Adjust > Color > Fade Correction. One Step
Noise Removal gets rid of the speckling
though now the image is a little blurry
so I'll go to Adjust > Sharpness >
High Pass Sharpen. I like the result of a
Soft Light blend with these radius and
strength values.
For a similar example I'll use this
photo. Here's how it looks after Fade
Correction,
and now after One Step Noise Removal. In
this case I think sharpening isn't
needed. The picture already has a soft
light, slightly fuzzy effect. Finally I'll
work on this archeology photo which is a
little monochromatic. I've used File > Save
A Copy As to make a copy and I'm opening
the copy as well, placing the two
side-by-side. On this image I'll use
Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Hue/Saturation/Lightness.
I can increase the saturation
to bring out more color but this
saturates all colors, producing an
exaggerated effect in some spots on the
grass and foreground. On the other image
I'll try
Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Vibrancy.
Increasing the strength brings out more
color in the grassy areas but leaves the
more neutral areas as they are. This
brings us to the end of this tutorial on
improving image quality. If you've been
watching this video on YouTube, please
follow the link in the description below
which will take you to this tutorial
page on Corel's Discovery Center.
Here you'll find a written version of
this tutorial
along with the sample images you can
download and follow along.