Xara Photo Editing Tip-The Gradient Map Adjustment in Xara

[Gare]

Xara Photo Editing Tip-The Gradient Map Adjustment in Xara

I’ve seen both a fascination on tg with what Xara Designer can do with bitmap imports, and also a reluctance to explore some of the less exotic capabilities. For example, did you know that you can make both color and monochrome imported photos into sepia tone images? And “Steeltone”? And not only imitation “vintage” photos, but also you can make a color or B&W photo into any two-tone color combination you like?

Xara’s Contone feature—found on the Color Editor (panel) is very much like Photoshop’s Image>Adjustments>Gradient Map, except PS’s Gradient Map Adjustment can use a number of colors in-between one end and the other color. What is happening with both Xara Designer’s Contone feature and PS’s Gradient Map is the darkest color in the target image (brightness values from 0 to 255) is reassigned the color you choose, as is the lightest color in the image. The result when you specify two new colors is that all the colors in the photo are reassigned the new colors, graduating from one at the dark point to the other at the light point, in 256 brightness steps. I’ve never seen banding with only 256 steps, and if you’d like to get down to a little photographic experimentation right now, it’ll take you about 2 minutes to learn and master.

1. File>Import and then choose, let’s say, a JPEG file you have on hard disk.

2. Select the image with the Selector tool.

3. Click the Color editor icon to the left of the color swatches on the Color Line.

4. Click the drop-down list at the top of the Editor, and then choose Light Contone (an abbreviation for “Lightest area in a continuous tone image”). Now, let’s say you mix colors using the HSV model—drag the marker in the color field close to the top right of the color field. This tells Xara to make the lightest area in the photo have the brightness (value) and amount of Saturation you’ve just specified by moving the marker here.

5. Using the Hue slider, choose a color, and color. You’ve just re-mapped the lighter areas in the photo. Next is the darkest area to re-map.

6. Click the drop-down arrow now and choose Dark Contone.

7. Choose a deep, saturated color in the color field, and then drag the Hue slider to the hue of your choice.

Now, if you want a sepiatone photo, your Light Contone should be something of a hex value of e8e8d9, and your Dark Contone for the photo should be a very deep brown, such as the hex color 413409. You really need to work the color sliders because every photo is different.

Now, if you want to do bizarre stuff, as I’m doing to this target image here, you can specify one hue for the Light Contone and a very different one for the Dark Contone. And if you want to simulate a photographic negative, you’d make the Dark Contone a very light color and the Light Contone a dark one.

Hey, have fun with photos in Xara. You can even call it “Xarashop” if you’re on a budget like most of us!







My Best,

Gary

[steve.ledger]

Where do I find this gradient control dialogue, Gare?

[Gare]

Hey, good one, Steve.

And I suspect you already know the answer. Your re-posted screen cap is of Photoshop, you know, the blue icon in the upper left of the document? Um, my second paragraph talks about the similarity between Photoshop's Gradient Map feature and Xara's Contone feature.

Did I un-ambiguate this for you now? ;)

My Best,

Gare

[steve.ledger]

Actually I missed seeing the PS icon.. Ooops

[MarcT]

Thanks for the tip Gary, contones are indeed great.

I've noticed that If you have a bitmap selected and click on a swatch, it will be automatically "contoned"
The light color will be the one you click.

I also like the profile arrow that let you adjust you toned image with sliders.




Here's an example.


Original Image


Light Contone=White


With profile rather strongly edited




It can be useful in many situations.

[Gare]

Oh, yeah.

If your "Contoned" image is selected, you can choose the Fill Tool, and then avail yourself of the Profile slider up on the Infobar.

Technically (I guess) the Contoned bitmap has a sort of gradient fill, and gradient fills can be assigned a specific "gain" and "bias" with the Profile panel's controls.

Good point, Mark, and nice image!

My Best,

Gary

[handrawn]

on the general theme of ' pseudo gradient mapping' - interesting results can be obtained with transparencies...

[Gare]

Hi Handrawn—

Why do you call it pseudo? The light and dark contone are making a 256 step transition between one color and the other. Nothing 'false' about it; the result is as real as Photoshop's Gradient Map.

The image itself can look phony, but the mapping is mathematically real and true, as far as I can tell.

Am I missing something?

My Best,

gary

[handrawn]

nothing wrong with the mathematical mapping of 'light' and 'dark' 'contone' onto the image in xara - and its a useful feature

but the user is not in control of it [the profile slider that Marc mentioned is useful as a 'balancing/cross-fade' control, but little else]

a couple of PS examples attached where the user has actually been defining the mapping of the colour[s]

EDIT: that is defining the mapping by defining the gradient - which you can't do in xara - there is a difference between something being mapped by default... and actually mapping something...

[Gare]

Steve—

My second paragraph, first sentence freely admits that the Contone feature isn't as robust as Photoshop's Gradient Map...no contest, you cannot add intermediate colors in Xara's Contone feature as you can in PS and Corel Painter.

Can we agree on "limited" as a descriptor instead of "pseudo"?

You can, however, create a bizarre multi-colored Contone in a bitmap if you:

1. With the photo selected, give the Light Contone a medium green color, just for example, using the Color Editor's drop-down list.

2. Give the Dark Contone a similar medium green, just for the sake of this example.

3. Then choose the Fill tool with the weird photo selected, and on the Infobar drop-down list where Fill Effect appears and Fade is the default, set it to "Alt Rainbow".

4. Voila! Psychedelia in 3 steps! What's happening is the tones in the image are cycling through the spectrum of colors, from a beginning of green right through all the colors back to green again. Try different start and end colors and different photos!



My Best,

Gary