4 tools are used on almost all images produced as above (listed in order
of use, methods based strongly on tutorial on AIM page).
Final image clean up. By far the most useful tool in this regard is
the 'Clone Stamp Tool' (hotkey 'S').
Type 'S' or click on the 'Clone Stamp Tool'
Zoom in on the area that needs to be touched up
Select a brush
selecting a brush that is not 100% hard will allow you to blur
areas together, making the boundary seamless
similarly making the brush less that 100% opaque will do the same,
this is particularly useful when you want to partially cover features but
not completely cover them up
Find an area nearby to the problematic area that is not problematic,
hold down 'alt' and click on that area
Move the brush over the area that you want to fix and click away,
note that the area that is being copied over the "problem" is highlighted
with a cross
repeatedly updating the location you want to 'clone' (good part)
by hitting the 'alt' clicking frequently.
Adjust levels (ctl-l, Image->Adjust->Levels)
This sets you black and white points on the image (if you do this
during the image capture process with the "Set White"/"Set Black" you'll
notice you'll only have to adjust the levels slight if at all)
Grab the white and black slider and move it to the point at which
your image data starts (see arrows), adjust till your liking (background
can be more or less eliminated this way)
Adjust curves (ctl-m, Image->Adjust->Curves)
see the AIM image manipulation page for this use
generally just bring the top right point left just slightly (Input
of around 238 often), and the bottom left point slight right (Input 2-11
often). Moving the points up or down or makeing your line a curve is
generally not that useful and can be tricky to set correctly, in general
I haven't done this.
hue- its generally not necessary to move the hue more than a couple
of points upwards or downwards
saturation - I'll generally increase the saturation to 10 or so,
this produces a richer overall color
lightness - at this point is generally not necessary to adjust this
option
Color balance
generally you shouldn't have to use this at this point, however if
the background is not quite grey you can tweak the color settings much the
same way you would adjust the grey background as described above.
Sharpening filters
using the "unsharp mask" filter can enchance fine detail such as
minute sculpture or setae, particularly in those images that have been photographed
with scattered light as the light source
Before
After (all methods above except for unsharp mask).
top - these pages best viewed in 1024x768 with Netscape 6.0 or higher - last updated: march 20 2003
