virtualPhotographer Help
Philosophy
virtualPhotographer is designed to allow
photographers familiar with traditional camera usage and terminology
to easily create photographically rich and artistic results from
their digital images.
Technique
The operating principle of
virtualPhotographer is to offer many "one-click"
photo-effect options that give, or get close to, a desired result. If
needed, simple adjustments can then be made to get exactly the shot
being sought.
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Installing and
Launching virtualPhotographer
Installing virtualPhotographer
1) After downloading
virtualPhotographer installer to your computer
double-click the setup.exe icon:
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2) Select the language and then progress through installer wizard:
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3) The virtualPhotographer folder is now located on your Desktop.
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4) Open this folder and drag the file virtualPhotographer.8bf to the "Plug-Ins" folder of your Photo-editing software program:
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Example: For Adobe PhotoShop the
Plug-ins folder is at: [Program Files] >
[Adobe] > [PhotoShop]
> [Plug-Ins]
NOTE: For Photoshop CS place files in the [Filter] folder within the [Plug-Ins] folder
For Paint Shop Pro the Plugins folder is at:
[Jasc Software Inc] > [Paint
Shop Pro] > [Plugins]
Tip: As a rule most Photo-editors implement their effects using Filters, these effects will always be “8bf” files such as “Solarize.8bf” so look for where these 8bf files are located for your photo-editor (typically in a “Plug-ins” or “Filters” folder) and place the file virtualPhotographer.8bf in the same folder with them.
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Starting virtualPhotographer
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To start virtualPhotographer simply load an image into
your Photo-editing software program and then select the
optikVerve Labs -> virtualPhotographer option from
the "Filter" menu:
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Quick Start -- Use Presets!
- Open an image in your photo-editing software and
start virtualPhotographer
- Click on the Presets
pop-down menu and select various Preset options,
see the results in the Preview
- Click the "Process" button (bottom right corner) to
apply a Preset you like to your original image.
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[TIP: Use the UP and Down arrow keys on your keyboard to
quickly select different Presets and see results instantly.
Note: The Preset pop-down menu must be
selected but closed]
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The
virtualPhotographer Screen and Controls
The following list describes what each control section
of virtualPhotographer does:
- Preview
- This area allows you to preview the applied filter effect.
Clicking and holding the left mouse button on the Preview image
will display the original image. If the image is zoomed larger
than the Preview Window then you may move the image by clicking
and dragging with the left mouse button
- Zoom Buttons
- This area allows the image to be zoomed for better viewing.
The "-" and "+" zoom buttons zoom out or in by a fixed amount.
The "100%" button shows the image at full size while the "FIT"
button fits the entire image into the Preview Window. This area
also contains the "?" link to help button, and also the
Progress bar on the left that shows the progress of the filter
being applied to the image.
- Presets
- The is the main functional area and is the first thing you
should do. Effectively, the Presets are applying all the other
control settings for you. Apply the various Presets to see
their impact on the image, when you get close to what you are
looking for you may then fine-tune the image using the other
controls if necessary.
- Film Type
- This allows you to set either a film type which causes the
image to appear more like regular film, or slide film which
results in a slightly more contrasty image
- The sliders allow you to adjust brightness and contrast of the input image
- Film Speed
- The Film Speed dictates the speed of the film and therefore
how much film grain is applied to the image
- The slider adjusts the amount of grain applied
- Photographic Style (emulsion/colored filter)
- Firstly these settings allow the film emulsion (warm, cool,
green) to be applied
- In B/W mode, these settings simulate colored filters in
front of the camera lens
- The slider adjusts the emulsion characteristics or the strength of the filter
- Photographic Effect
- One of the most powerful settings, this allows blur, color
shift, and blend effects
- The slider adjusts the strength of the effect
- B/W
- Converts the image to black and white based on other
settings above, also allows tints
- The slider adjusts the strength of any tinting
- Settings
- These buttons allow you to save your own custom settings (.vph files) to
use on other images and load additional settings (.vph files) available separately
- To access the additional/saved settings Click the LOAD button. Then browse to the .vph file
- Process
- These buttons either apply the current filter to the
original image, or cancel the plug-in
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How
virtualPhotographer works
virtualPhotographer is designed to be
familiar to traditional photographers. The filter can simulate the
film type: "Film" or "Slide", the speed of the film to adjust grain,
the emulsion of the film: "Warm", "Cool", "Green", "B/W", colored
filters placed in front of the lens, and various darkroom effects and
tints that can be applied to the print. Presets allow all of these
adjustments to be made with just one-click. Simply select between the
various Presets until you find one you like.
virtualPhotographer "Presets" are designed to work on
many different image types, from landscapes to portraits, so you are
likely to find a number of Presets that work well with your image and
yield the artistic results you desire.
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Using
virtualPhotographer
The ideal way to use
virtualPhotographer is first apply all of the Presets
to your image to see which ones look best. Then, if needed, fine tune
the other controls to get the exact results you want. Once you have
applied the first Preset you can quickly move through all the other
Presets by using the DOWN arrow and UP arrow keys on
your keyboard, or the scroll-wheel on your mouse if you have one.
This will move to the next Preset and apply it automatically. Make
sure the Preset pop-down menu is closed but selected for this to work
correctly, otherwise the arrow keys will simple scroll through the
pop-down menu list to the next Preset if it is open but will not
apply the effect.
To see the original image simple click and hold the left
mouse button down on the image in the Preview Window.
You may need to use the Zoom controls to see the details of some
effects, film grain for example, the "Fit" zoom control will
fit the entire image into the preview window while the "100%"
zoom button will show the image full size. The "+" and "-" buttons
zoom the image in and out respectively
If the image is zoomed larger than fits in the Preview window you
may move the image around to view the area you wish by clicking and
holding the left mouse button on the image in the Preview window and
dragging it to where needed.
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Selections and Layers
virtualPhotographer is fully aware of Selections and Layers in your image editing software. To apply an effect to just a part of your image simply select it before you start virtualPhotographer, you can even feather the selection to ensure gradual and pleasing edges.
When you have the desired effect in virtualPhotographer simply click the "Process" button as normal and the effect will only be applied to your selection. Likewise with Layers, virtualPhotographer will work on any layer, or the background. Simple select the layer you wish to use in your image editing software and then start virtualPhotographer. When you apply an effect from virtualPhotographer that you like it will only be applied to the selected layer. You can also combine selections on layers.
Note: virtualPhotographer does not currently preserve the transparency (Alpha-channel) of a layer.
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Speed Tips
Viewing the effects of all the Presets is a great way
to get to the best options quickly. To do this click on the Preset
pop-down menu and select the option you wish to begin at. The
pop-down menu will disappear but the effect you choose will be
selected, and applied to the Preview window. Now use the DOWN (and
UP) arrow keys on your keyboard to quickly move between all of the
presets.
Another method to quickly move through Preset options it to use
the scroll-wheel on your mouse. Once the Preset pop-down menu is
selected as described above simply scroll the mouse wheel with your
finger to move between Presets and see their effect.
To quickly access specific Presets you may use the first letter of
the name of the Preset from the keyboard. As you keep pressing this
key the Preset will jump to the next effect beginning with the letter
you are pressing.
You may also use the HOME, END, PAGEUP and PAGEDOWN keys in the
selected Preset pop-down menu to jump to the top of the list, the
bottom of the list, one page up in the list and one page down in the
list respectively.
To move sliders by small amounts first click on the slider to
select it and then use the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys on
the keyboard
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System Requirements and Compatibility
Currently virtualPhotographer works on Microsoft Windows '98, ME. 2000, XP. We are looking to create a Macintosh version
virtualPhotographer is a Photoshop-compatible plugin and as such requires a host image-editing program that supports Photoshop plugs. There are many such programs that we have successfully tested virtualPhotographer with:
Photoshop from Adobe
Photoshop Elements from Adobe
Paint Shop Pro from Jasc
Photo-Paint from Corel
Photo-Brush from MediaChance
Canvas from ACD
PhotoSuite from MGI
Image Explorer Pro from CDH Productions
virtualPhotographer requires a photo-editor that supports 24bit RGB images.
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