Request for basic retouch tools in XPE

[roman]

Retouch tools for basic photo editing: blur (for skin corrections), sharpen (e.g. detail sharpening e.g. hair) & clone tool for texture corrections. Smudge & erase would be probably useful too.

The brush size-control could be centralised (best would be to have possibility to control size while editing using some keys like < > or [ ] like in photoshop) the type of brush could be selected in select-box.

[Charles Moir]

But XPE can do sharpen and blur already - or do you mean by a brush or mask to only a specific area of your photo?

[GOC]

For the market XPE is aimed at you are going to need red-eye correction, and that will require the ability to deal with only a small part of the image. So you are going to be part of the way towards what Dmagician wants.
By the way, Adobe Photoshop Album has a very good red-eye correction tool.

[roman]

Yes. I've attached the quick made illustrative example picture. It was first globally sharpened, then retouched using Blur (most of it) Smudged (on some parts) and Sharpen (very little). On more spotty skins clone tool would be also useful.

Of course all the changes are irrevocable, but usually such retouch things are necessary in commercial work.

roman

[doane]

Charles:

In the previous post, "A Totaly Worthless..."
I torally disagree, I just wanted to say that your explination of the features of the Picture Editor and your plans and hopes for it are really impressive.
I have mostly used bit map editors over the last 10 years... PicturePublisher, Micrographix, Corel PhotoPaint, Adobe PhotoShop. My first intro to Xara was with Xara3d several years ago, it just blew me away.. so intuitive, fast, and in real time. I now have v5 and the improvements are amazing. In February I got XaraX, and have not had time to learn how to use it, but when I saw the features in X1 I was amazed and immediately bought it, thanks for the intro price too. I especially the addition of the Picture Editor. Obviously it can't replace major editors, but it can do a lot of the most common tasks that I usually end up with several saved 15-25mb files in psd, tiff, or bmp format after doing them.
Just wanted to commend you on some amazing graphics software.
My ONE major request would be some universal imbedded thumb so that programs like ACDSee, compuPix, Thumbs+, etc., can easily view and catalog the Xara files. Your compatibility with WinXP is a great start, but it's not a great browser.
Thanks again for all the effort.

[jclements]

Hi Roman,

I just downloaded the most recent version of IrfanView. It has, I think, a good simple approach to doing touch-ups. XPE could be bit better and allow more than a rectangular selection, but I think something similar to IrfanView's approach would be a good starting place.

[roman]

I've tested it. Yes that could be nice for a starter. Btw. I've noticed in XPE screenshots at xara.com that there are more icons and some of them even look like some sort of hand retouch tools.

[RAMWolff44]

I agree John, I think Irfanview has some really great features for image work. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

I particularly like the Enhance Colors dialog. It's all there. Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, Saturation and Color Balance. The built in Effects Browser offers: Blur, Emboss, Oil Paint, Edge Detection, Median Filter, Explosion, Pixelize, Sharpen, Fine Rotation, 3D Button and Red Eye Reduction.

I think that Charles mentioned to me or some one somewhere that he didn't care for Irfanview. Not very 'elegant' or something like that. I agree but what it offers and it being FREE, is quite a lot of power there. I use it all the time for all sorts of "quicky" fixes including cropping and resizing of images/photos and the Color Balance area is just wonderful. A very useful veiwer.

It might not be as elegant as Microsofts Picture Viewer but that said I'm not a great fan of just about any Microsoft software!! The OS is about the only thing I use of Microsofts. I just don't think they have the market cornered in imageing software and probably never will. Irfanview is useful and I like it just fine, clunkiness and all!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

I think that XPE could 'adopt' some of Irfan's ideas and introduce them into XPE and yes, do it better!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Roman, if you go to the Programs/Xara/Xara X1 directory and look for the folder named Xara Picture Editor you will see the .exe in there. Invoke it and you will see many more icons. The "Edit in Another Program" icon is just for looks I'm afraid. For the time being.

Remember it's a work in progress!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[roman]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Remember it's a work in progress!! http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I keep that in my mind. That's what I demand... ahem... ask so early.

[doane]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Charles Moir:
But XPE can do sharpen and blur already - or do you mean by a brush or mask to only a specific area of your photo? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Cfharles:
Yes, a way to mask areas for adjustment and effects would be super!