September 2014 Video Tutorial -- Xara Photo Compositions Part 1

Xara Photo Compositions Part 1

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Xara Designer Pro contains some subtle but very apt and effective features for producing astounding image work in a way unlike other programs, vector or bitmap. This month, you’ll get a double scoop of advanced imaging techniques that only looks advanced. Gary Bouton is your video guide to producing top notch, intriguing photo compositions. Go get the tutorial files, learn two creative techniques this month—creating depth of field and selective color correction now, and then take a deep breath and great into masking tools later this month. Two parts, too much fun!

Dig in and show us your compositions here.

Hi Guys, just asking for a little information here after trying to start Gary's video tut. Rather than put my question in lots of text I have put it in this Jpg, I think you will see what is missing in my version XP&GD10. Or am I missing something ?

Stygg

Hi Stygg—

At the risk of sounding like a jerk (which I do daily), I just downloaded Photo and Graphics Designer 10, and there appears to be no masks, or Select colours to Enhance feature. I'm guessing this comes with only the Pro version but there is a wonky workaround.

1. Use a drawing tool to draw around the area whose color you want to replace.

2. Give this shape no outline and no fill.

3. Ctrl+Shift+C to make a bitmap copy, and then use TrueColor without alpha. Accept and there's an approximation of your shape on the page.

4. Align it with the area on the photo you want to change, and then trim away (clip) unwanted areas, 'cause your bitmap copy is rectangular.

5. With the Photo tool, use the Hue/Saturation or any other feature specific to the Photo tool to bring the color and saturation in line with what you desire.

I'll provide and example later today if you need it and I get the chance, Stygg.

By the way, the chess Depth of Field tutorial can be done using just about any version of Xara and I thought this was a fun effect to create.

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You will notice in the almost 3 years since Gary P. turned the keys to Xara Xone over to me, that I've created tutorials that many different past versions of Xara can use. Because I'm an inclusive rather than an exclusive kinda guy.

But: 1.) Some members have complained that I don't cover the latest/greatest features, and

2.) Covering a tutorial done in version 6 doesn't help sell version 10, now. And if enough people don't upgrade, Xara's revenue stream might trickle out, and this will certainly cause Wall Street to collapse again, we'll be plagued by 40 years of harvest-devouring locusts, and Downton Abbey will be cancelled and they'll bring back Benny Hill reruns.

And ice cream will only come in vanilla from now on.

So I have my reasons for creating a version-specific tute, but it's only one out of 3; there's a Masks tutorial coming up later this month (September is a double-feature), and previous versions of XDP supports masks.

My Best,

Gary

Cheers for that Gary, at least I know that feature is not in PG10, but as always in Xara, where there's a will there's a way :D Just did this quick work around. Used the masking tools to select the areas I wanted to change, the three rectangles and then the freehand masking tool to change the model to suit. Now I know it can be done in PG10 I'll make a better and complete job later. Having said that, the offer is still on for Upgrade to ProX10 from PGD10, which includes DVD and manual, see what I've got left in the piggy bank :D

Stygg

Gare thanks for showing those buttons in the Enchance photos, rarely used to go there.

These monsters at the door once wanted to come in :)

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Nicely done grasshopper :D

Stygg

Thanks Stygg, but again I was not able to catch faster the monthly tutorial than you :D

Just the shape tool around the monsters and the blur try yet :)

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Another nice monsters one csehz, since I do not have the extra tools in P&GD10, tolerance and fade options, I worked some more using the mask tools, hue and saturation and on the girls lips I applied linear enhance transparency. It's all a little more work but it all seems to look ok. The masking tools are great. I missed a little bit out on the girls costume strap but that's because I need my glasses changing :D

Stygg

Stygg—

Nice going and good original thinking. It's easier in 10, yeah, however you rose to the occasion and the composition is more harmonious now!

I'm glad people are having fun and having a go at this part 1 of 2 image retouching videos thin month.!

-g

Was a good way to relax so had some fun with this also.

@theinonen...

It's quite a beautiful composition.

Did you use masking? Or Xara?

-g

I watched the tutorial video and then tried both exercises as had not used any photo/bitmap tools on Xara before. I must say the colour enchance tool is pretty neat and works much faster than magicwand or manual way to mask.

But that particular image was finished on an olden but golden image compositing software that I use to put almost everything together. I am pretty much used to work with multiple programs to get anything done and old habits die hard.


Ps. rendering parts of the image with alpha and putting those already masked parts on tutorial would get lazy people to participate on compositing also, as it would save the effort of masking manually and would be more accurate than is possible with masking manually.

Great compostion theinonen, this one is all Xara, masks and transp.

Stygg

There does not seem to be any blend modes in Xara or are those hidden in somewhere?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theinonen

Ps. rendering parts of the image with alpha and putting those already masked parts on tutorial would get lazy people to participate on compositing also..

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Hi theinonen—

I don't bust my chops monthly to conceive of and create design material for "lazy people". That's not why anyone is here. "Impatient" I can understand, as well as "inexperienced, not up to speed, not getting the big picture, not getting a small detail", but I do not want to attract "lazy people" ! Let them sleep in study hall, so I have fewer unmotivated people to address.

You and Stygg did wonderful compositions, but perhaps they were not dead-on with the principal I was trying to demonstrate and get people comfortable with: selective area selection by color, and modifying it. Not masking—although there will be a tutorial on this probably next week—but working with the process of selecting by color and then changing it. I've been asked to tone down a certain hue in a specific area in artwork, and if my laptop had only one program on it, Xara, this month's first tutorial addresses how to do it using Xara.

No apologies and I know people are whizzes with other programs, but this tutorial was designed to appeal to those who don't have mega-budgets for software.

There are blend modes for the transparency tool on the Infobar, theinonen. Bleach, Stained Glass and the default Mix are terrific for vector shapes, and the rest, which you might already be familiar with, are great for photos and don't do a lot with vectors.




My Best,

Gary
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Quote:

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Originally Posted by theinonen

There does not seem to be any blend modes in Xara or are those hidden in somewhere?

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Not sure if this question is for me or your asking this forum. If you are asking is there a blend mode in Xara-yes, if there is blends in my composition-no, just masks, transparencies and use of the hue and saturation tool. Apologies Gary you have answered his question.

Stygg

I was thinking about those blend modes that affect how stacked images will blend together ( Add, multiply, screen, etc...)

Colour enhance tool of Xara seems to work really well for selecting areas by colour but why on earth it is not possible to save the selection indicated by circles and tolerance settings as a mask as that would be really useful feature. Also saving just the mask separately from the image would be handy for people playing with textures.

Just finished the second part of part 1 and it reminds me of a tutorial we did in the Xone some time ago, so had a little pre-knowledge :D

Stygg

Stygg—

The chess pawn in the foreground isn't blurring correctly, as though its silhouette is holding back blurring outside of its profile. Can you post the XARA file and let me take a look?

Hey theoninen, I created a file for you and anyone else to play with vis a vis blend (merge) modes, operations whatever one likes to call them.

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My Best,

Gary

More files for selective recoloring.

I did what theoninen suggested (for lazy people) and separated the foreground model from several different backgrounds, which are the real target of the exercise this month. Use your own image, but be sure to work through the selective color adjustment. It's a fairly significant feature in Photoshop since version 6 or so, and you own almost the same thing with Xara 10 (Thought: do you really want to work in a Creative Cloud?).

I also added a vector shadow you can experiment with.

September Bonus Files

For the moment they're in my Dropbox public area—I don't have access to MAGIX's server :(

The link is also on the Xara Xone page next to the asterisk halfway down the page.

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-g

I you'd like a second go at color selection and alterations, I did an alternative image:

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Just see how well you can select a sphere and edit its color. The single most important feature in Photoshop...and continues to be...is its selection tools. You can do selections manually, but color contrast, by geometry and by color similarity. I believe we can do much the same stuff with the same accuracy in Xara with a little practice. So here's a practice image.

My Best,

Gary

Gary here is the xar.file you asked me to post in #20

Stygg

I screwed up and left out a step, Stygg, my apologies.

You need to make a bitmap copy with Alph of your cutout of the pawn. If you just blur the cutout, the blur will not extend beyond the shape you're confining it to:

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Goofily yours,

Gary

Thanks for quick reply Gary, it works fine now.

Stygg

Is this what you wanted us to come up with Gary from your post in #22 ? I missed changing the red reflection to orange :o

Stygg

I call this one finished now as not much more I could do and this is as beautiful she will ever get.

Added colour to face so she will not look too much like a corpse + some added lighting and most importantly darkened the other side of the face to give some illusion of depth. Finally just moved every slider I could find in Xara to tweak everything to please my own eyes.

Nice final finish theinonon, does make a difference the tweaking you have done and besides it stops that niggleing feeling you get when you feel it's not finished. In my last post I had changed three spheres and one thing I missed was the colour change of now the yellow-orange sphere's reflection in the silver one, it niggled at me so had to change it :D

Stygg

Gary I didn't really do much to this but this is the figure on one is textured to look like it is on canvas, the other two on different backgrounds.

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I like the 3rd one Larry, nice backdrop. I've only done one, using 3D bumpmap, made this black and white.

Stygg

This is the final colour spheres, I changed colours on two spheres and added a small sphere and tried to make the right reflections in the silver sphere. Fun to do but as I have already said, we did a very similar tut. in the Xone a while back.

Stygg

Good idea with that one in the middle Stygg

Cheers csehz, I've enjoyed playing with the colours in this months Vid.tut. and leaned a few things as well.

Stygg

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Originally Posted by theinonen

I call this one finished now as not much more I could do and this is as beautiful she will ever get. Added colour to face so she will not look too much like a corpse...

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Hi Theoninen—

Something very strange is going on here. It's possible your monitor isn't calibrated properly, or you posted an unintended image, but the original PNG file I posted this month is hardly what you'd call corpse-like. Here's the original and post #27 at the right.

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I think there isn't a lot to do with the woman's face in the first place, but if you're content with your finished version, fine, but I'm still puzzled at why there is such a big difference between my original—and I use both software and hardware color calibration and use Xara's native sRGB color space—and what you did.

My Best,

Gary

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stygg2003

...we did a very similar tut. in the Xone a while back.

Stygg

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I'm sure you're right, stygg. No denying, though, what you and others have done is great "thinking" work; considering the possibilities and approaching this non-assignment with your own personal style.

This stuff will come in handy, I promise you, if you don't upgrade to Photoshop Creative Cloud 2015! :) Me and Xara are just saving you money here.

In all seriousness, when I'm handed a retouching job, if it's on a pixel-level, it goes straight to Photoshop. But if it's changing stuff on a sub-pixel level, making quick and predictable corrections, and a lot of other times, the image goes to Xara for repairs.

I've probably shown this before...I retouched out the fencing and all reflections using Xara, after wasting 1/2 hour in PS with tools that were not precise enough:

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This stuff has to be open-minded, but also fun.

My Best,

Gary

Thanks for the feed back Gary and won't be upgrading to P.S.cloud. and was'nt complaining about having done similar tut, was quite pleased to refresh and put to use what I had learned in the Xone in the past, which is an awful lot.

Stygg

Gary just an update on a post of mine last week about there being no Colour select/erase tool in XP&GD10, it only being in the Pro version, well I was wrong. It is not on the Photo enhance toolbar for some reason but hidden in the buttons palette, so dragged it out and it works fine. Just in case anyone else thought they only had the Hue and strength tool option. New pic showing colour select use, no masks :D and I don't think she looks like a corpse ;))

Stygg

My eyes are even less calibrated than my monitor as have been working long days and not been sleeping for more than about 2-3 hours a day for couple weeks now. Have to extend the day to have some time for own stuff but looking better now as have got most of the work that had piled up sorted out.

I like that theinonen, nicely done and I thought my eyes were bad, not got to the glass stage yet :D

Stygg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theinonen

My eyes are even less calibrated than my monitor as have been working long days and not been sleeping for more than about 2-3 hours a day for couple weeks now.

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Not good to go sleepless, friend! But I've been there myself more than one time and it's darned frustrating when your mind has an idea that your eyes can't guide to the finish line!

Nice and novel variation you did there with the spheres, too! If you need music to inspire you whilst doing this sort of thing...

Music of the Spheres windchimes. Totally untested by me, mind you, but there is a historic body of work devoted to our planets aligning and their math and tonal meaning here at Wikipedia.

But I digress...

Great work, theoninen,

Gary