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Applying PhotoLab filters

Filters can be applied and managed in PhotoLab, a powerful studio for applying adjustment and effect filters to pictures individually or in combination—all instantly applied and previewed! PhotoLab offers the following key features:

• Adjustment filters
  Apply tonal, color, lens, and sharpening filters.

• Effect filters
  Apply distortion, blur, stylistic, noise, render, artistic and various other effects.

• Retouching filters
  Apply red eye correction, spot repair, straightening, and cropping.

• Non-destructive operation
  All filters are applied without affecting the original picture, and can be edited at any point in the future.

• Powerful filter combinations
  Create combinations of mixed adjustment, retouching, and effect filters for savable workflows.

• Selective masking
  Apply filters to selected regions using masks.

• Save and manage favorites
  Save filter combinations to a handy Favorites tab.

• Viewing controls
  Compare before-and-after previews, with dual- and split-screen controls. Use pan and zoom control for moving around your picture.

• Locking controls
  Protect your applied filters from accidental change, then optionally apply them to other images on selection.

PhotoLab hosts filter tabs, a main toolbar, and applied filter stack around a central workspace.

A – main toolbar
B – main workspace
C – filter stack
D – filter tabs
E – Images tab

To launch PhotoLab:

1. Select the picture that you want to apply a filter to.

2. Click PhotoLab on the Picture context toolbar.
   – or -
   Choose Picture>PhotoLab… from the Format menu.
   – or -
   Right-click on the picture and choose PhotoLab….

Using the Images tab

Pictures present in your publication will show in your Images tab (above) if the tab is expanded. This tab is shown by default in PhotoLab but can be hidden by clicking the  button at the bottom of your workspace.

To search publication images:

1. Click the Filter button on the Images tab.

2. Select and define a minimum and maximum size, if required.

3. Select or deselect RGB, CMYK and Grayscale to show only images in these color modes.

   

4. Click OK.

The Images tab displays only images which comply to the criteria set above.

Applying a filter

Filters are stored in PhotoLab’s Favorites, Adjustments, and Effects tabs which group filters logically into categories (e.g., Quick Fix for fast and commonly used correction filters). The Favorites tab offers some commonly used filters (individual and in combination). You can complement these with your own user-defined filters.

To apply a filter with trialling:

1. Click a filter thumbnail.

2. As soon as a filter is selected it is temporarily added to Trial Zone which lets you experiment freely with your own settings for that filter; the picture automatically refreshes to preview your new settings.

   

3. Adjust sliders (or enter input values) until your filter suits your requirements. Some filters offer check boxes, drop-down menus, and additional controls (e.g., Advanced settings).

• Selecting a new filter always replaces the current filter.

Any filter can be temporarily disabled, reset, or deleted from the trial zone.

To disable:	Click , then click  to enable again.
To reset:	Click . Any changes to settings are reverted back to the filter’s defaults.
To delete:	Click .

Once you’re sure that you want to keep your filter, you’ll need to commit the filter to your filters stack.

To commit your filter:

• Click  Commit to accept your changes. This adds the filter to the right-most Filters stack where additional filters can be added and built up by using the same method.

• Adjustments are applied such that the most recently added filter always appears at the bottom of the list and is applied to the picture last (after the other filters above it).

• Use zoom in/out buttons or a percentage magnification for detailed work.

• In some instances, the same filter can be both an effect and adjustment by choosing different settings.  

To reorder filters:

• Drag and drop your filter into any position in the stack. A dotted line indicates the new position in which the entry will be placed on mouse release.

To add a filter directly (without trialling):

• Click  Add Quick Filter at the top of the Filters stack and choose a filter from the flyout categories. The filter is applied directly to the stack without trialling.

Retouching

PhotoLab offers some useful retouching tools on the main toolbar, each commonly used to correct photos before applying color correction and effects.

To fix red eye:

• Click the  Red-eye Tool, then drag the cross-hair cursor over all of each eye in turn.

  

To remove blemishes and spots:

1. Click the  Spot-repair Tool.

2. (Optional) Choose a suitable cursor Size and Opacity from the Tool Settings pane.

3. Either:

• Automatic: Click directly over the blemish target area to remove the blemish immediately. An offset circular area will show the “replacement” sample area from which pixels have been used to remove the blemish.

  

- or -

1. Manual: Position your circle cursor over the target area to be worked on.

2. While holding down your mouse button, drag away to a sample area of your choice that blends nicely with the target area. You’ll notice that the pixels in the target area change to show the sample area’s pixels.

3. Release the mouse button to remove the blemish.

To straighten a picture:

Click the  Crop Tool, then the Straighten  button on the right. From the straighten cursor, drag a horizon line along a portion of the image that you want to be horizontal, then release. The image orients itself to the new line. Click  or  to make the straightening operation permanent or to cancel it.

To crop a picture:

Click the  Crop Tool, then the Crop  button. Choose an Aspect Ratio (e.g., 7 x 5 in) from the drop-down menu. Click to switch between a landscape or portrait orientation crop. Resize and reposition the displayed crop grid by dragging corner handles and panning the picture from within the grid area (when you see the hand cursor). Click  to make the crop permanent, or  to cancel.

• Rotate your picture for creative cropping by dragging outside the crop area.

• Click  Lock to maintain aspect ratio when resizing or rotating.

Locking filters

If you’ve spent time getting your adjustments and effects just right, you’ll want to protect them from accidental change. This is possible by locking the filter stack for the selected picture. Each picture’s filter stack has to be locked separately to save it’s own adjustments.

One additional advantage of locking is the ability to copy a locked set of filters onto other pictures. This saves time and effort, especially when a common adjustment needs to be applied to the same set of pictures.

To lock a filter stack:

• Click the  Lock button above the filter stack. Once locked, no other filters can be trialled. Click again to unlock.

To apply a locked filters to other images:

• Load the image which possesses locked filters in PhotoLab.

• From the Images tab, select an image to which you want the “picked up” filters to be applied to.

• Any saved filters on “target” pictures will be overwritten.     

Selective masking

Rather than apply a filter to uniformly change the appearance of your picture, you can change only selected regions instead. PhotoLab lets you mask picture areas by painting areas to be either affected by filters or simply left alone.

To apply a mask:

1. From the  Mask drop-down menu, select New Mask.

2. In the Tool Settings pane, select the  Add Region tool to allow you to mask regions by painting.

3. Adjust the settings to suit requirements, especially adjusting Brush Size to paint larger or more intricate regions.

   

4. Change the Mode drop-down menu from Select to Protect to protect painted regions from masking (i.e., the inverse of the Add Region option).

4. Using the on-screen cursor, paint regions (in green for adding; red for protecting).

   

   If you’ve not been as accurate as you’d like while painting, you can click  Remove Regions then paint over the unwanted painted regions.

5. Click  to save your masking changes.

• The mask button changes to yellow when a mask is applied (i.e., ).

It’s also possible to create additional masks for the same filter as above, and then choose between masks accordingly. You can only have one mask applied at any one time. By using the menu’s New From> option you can also base the new mask on another mask applied to the current or any other filter in the filter stack. This is useful when using favorites containing multiple adjustments.

To edit a mask:

• Click the down arrow on the   button, choose the mask name and select Edit Mask.

Saving favorites

If there’s a specific filter setting (or combination of filters) you want to keep for future use it’s easy to save it as a favorite. PhotoLab stores all your favorites together in the Favorites tab. You can even create your own categories (e.g. My Adjustments) within the tab.

To save filter(s) as a new favorite:

• Click Save Filter.

• From the dialog, enter a favorite name and pick a category to save the filter to. (Click  to create new category)

If you want to further manage your favorites into user-defined categories, click the option on the  Tab Menu.

To manage favorites:

1. From the Favorites tab, click  Tab Menu and choose Manage Favorites….

2. From the dialog, click the down arrow on

• Click New Folder to add a new category folder to your Favorites tab.

• Click Move… to move a selected favorites entry to a new Favorites category. (You’ll need to expand categories by clicking category arrows)

• Click Rename to change the name of the currently selected Favorites entry or category.

• Click Export… to save a currently selected Favorites category to a PhotoLab Profile (.plp) file.

• Click Import… to import a previously exported set of filters from a PhotoLab Profile (.plp) file into the current Favorites category.

Applying PhotoLab filters