Nova versão está mais integrada ao Windows 7 além de trazer correções. Faça o download!

A grande novidade da versão 3.5.1 é a integração com as novas funcionalidades do Windows 7. Por exemplo: Agora, se você está instalando o programa, aplicando um efeito ou salvando uma imagem a barra de progresso da superbar entra em ação. Assim você sabe quando o que você fez acabou de ser feito sem precisar ficar acompanhando na janela de programa. O mais legal é que o autor do software teve todo o cuidado em colocar pequenos ícones na frente do ícone do programa para você saber o que exatamente está sendo feito.

Progresso do efeito na superbar

Outras correções:

• Tradução para o idioma francês melhorada;
• Rodar o instalador usando o código /auto não inicia o programa após terminar;
• Corrigido o bug de quando se colava em nova imagem – aparecia um erro dizendo que não tinha imagem na área de transferência;
• Corrigido bug ao usar Editar > Colar e Imagem > Redimensionar, que levaria até 100% da CPU e ter entre 1 minuto e 1 hora para terminar;

Saiba mais: Lista completa de correções e outras informações, em inglês, no post oficial de lançamento

Download: Paint.NET 3.5.1

Dica: Você também pode atualizar abrindo o programa e indo no menu Utilitários > Verificar Atualizações

I know that I’ve mentioned this week’s pick before, but I don’t think a couple of brief sentences really does it justice. I was reminded of this yet again when I had to deal with a couple of graphics for a website that weren’t behaving themselves and needed more than the lightest bit of fiddling. So if you can’t afford Photoshop but need something more powerful than basic photo editing software, allow me to introduce you to Paint.NET.

Paint.NET is an image editor that does most of what other image editing programs — both free and commercial — do. You can rotate, resize and crop images, adjust colours, reduce redeye, all the usual things. What lifts Paint.NET above the competition are it’s intuitive interface, support for layers, the easy-to-implement image effects, and the multitude of plugins available for dealing with proprietary formats such as Photoshop files (.PSD).

One of the great things about Paint.NET is that when you boot it up, the secondary windows for tools and layers remain transparent, so that you can always see what you’re working on, eliminating the need for multiple windows. Once you start fiddling, if like me you suffer from “fat finger syndrome,” you have unlimited undo, so you can get your image back to the way it looked before you started playing with it. There is also an action history, so you can figure out exactly how you achieve the effect you did if you don’t quite remember.

If all you’re ever doing is tidying up pictures and images before using them elsewhere, Paint.NET has got you covered. But if you’ve ever harboured dreams of becoming a whizz at graphic design, you’re in luck. In addition to a comprehensive help and tutorial section that doesn’t require you to visit a website to get the answer to your query, Paint.NET also has a thriving user community where even the most obscure question can be answered. Many of the users also contribute plugins to the program, so if you’re in need of a killer tool that you can’t track down, somebody will be able to point you in the right direction.

Paint.NET is Windows-only, but is good to go for Windows XP and up, including Windows 7. You will also need the .NET framework, which is also free, and at least 200MB of hard drive space. That may seem like a sizeable chunk, but for that you get a fast, smooth image editing program that more than holds its own when compared to Photoshop. True, the mighty cross-platform GIMP is a little more powerful, but I’ve found that it can be intimidating to new users, and its interface isn’t half as friendly for those who aren’t already experts. So my vote for free image editing goes to Paint.NET over any other. Try it out today and see how much it can do.

Nova versão do editor de imagens está repleta de novidades e correções, faça o download!

Depois de 4 versões beta e vários meses de desenvolvimento, o Paint.NET 3.5 finalmente chegou a versão final. O software ficou muito bom e agora tem um visual que se integra ao Aero no Windows Vista e 7. Além da correção de milhares de bugs, a nova versão também traz novos efeitos para serem usados nas imagens. O listão de todas as novidades pode ser vista, em inglês, no post de lançamento no blog oficial. A versão 4 do programa deve ser lançada em meados de 2011.

Paint.NET 3.5

Para rodar o programa é necessário o .NET Framework 3.5 SP1.

Download: Paint.NET 3.5
Você também pode atualizar indo no menu Ajuda > Verificar Atualizações (Versão 3.36) ou Utilitários > Verificar Atualizações (Versão 3.5 beta)

Via: @raulneptune

Versão final é esperada para esse mês. Faça o download!

O Paint.NET, considerado por muitos o melhor editor de imagens gratuito está prestes a chegar a mais uma versão e, depois de vários meses sem atualizações, betas da versão 3.5 começaram a aparecer. A versão 3.5 trará uma nova interface, integrada ao Aero no Windows Vista e 7.

Nesse novo beta, alguns problemas foram corrigidos:

• Corrigidos pequenos crashes e bugs;
• Perfomance otimizada em certos locais, como no copiar/colar e desfazer/refazer;
• Tradução para idioma coreano removida. Segundo o autor do programa, “não temos recursos para completá-la”;
• Traduções completas: Português do Brasil, Chinês (Simplificado), Fracês, Alemão, Italiano, Japonês, Russo e Espanhol.

Paint.NET 3.5 Beta 4 no Windows 7

Até a versão final outras questões serão revistas e melhoradas no programa, como o consumo de memória RAM. A versão final é esperada para o mês de novembro que, caso você esteja perdido nas datas, começou hoje.

Download: Paint.NET 3.5 Beta 4

Agradecimentos ao Caique Vilela pelo aviso.

O Blog Aprende Fácil fez uma análise e traz à você o top 5 dos editores de imagens gratuitos do mercado.

1º) The Gimp

Um editor tão completo quanto o PhotoShop. Uma infinidade de recursos para edição e criação de imagens. O The Gimp é um programa sensacional e não existe melhor do que ele entre os FREE do mercado. Porém, assim como o PhotoShop, o programa é meio complexo e leva um tempo para que o usuário se adapte ao sistema.

Nota do AF: 9.5

2º) Paint.Net

Um editor levíssimo e cheio de recursos. O Paint.Net oferece o trabalho com camadas, o que já um diferencial entre os editores de imagem, e traz filtros bacanas. O programa ainda é flexível com uma imensidão de plugins, o que faz ele ficar ainda mais versátil. O programa não é tão completo como o The Gimp, mas para quem quer um editor simples e leve que faça trabalhos mais complexos, o Paint.Net é a solução.

Nota do AF: 8.0

3º) PhotoScape

O PhotoScape não é um editor para quem já é experiente no ramo de edição de imagem, pois ele não é similar com o PhotoShop, The Gimp, etc. Primeiro que ele não trabalha com camadas e ainda não possui aquelas famosas ferramentas que a maioria dos programas do gênero posssui. Mas o PhotoScape se destaca pela simplicidade e eficiência em que se tem ao aplicar um efeito ou adicionar itens às imagens. A ferramenta de texto é a melhor parte do programa, sendo provavelmente a melhor entre todos os outros programas, devido a facilidade e qualidade que possui. Ainda por cima é possível fazer colagens de maneira tão fácil que jamais foi visto antes e criar ou editar animações em gif de maneira bem intuitiva. Para quem não possui experiência do ramo de edição de imagem, o PhotoScape é a ferramenta perfeita!

Nota do AF: 7.5

4º) PhotoFiltre

O PhotoFiltre é a versão gratuita do poderoso PhotoFiltre Studio. Por isso, é muito mais simples que a versão paga, mas nem por isso deixa de ser uma boa alternativa entre os gratuitos. O programa traz efeitos legais e se explorado com calma, permite que o usuário vá além das expectativas. Apesar de não trabalhar diretamente com camadas, o PhotoFiltre Free permite a criação de efeitos como um editor que trabalhe com camadas.

Nota do AF: 7.0

5º) Photo Pos Pro

Este software é ainda desconhecido pela grande maioria dos internautas. O Photo Pos Pro se tornou gratuito a pouco tempo e traz recursos avançados de edição, como o trabalho com camadas. Trabalha com camadas e faz a maioria dos trabalhos que o The Gimp, PhotoFiltre Studio, PhotoShop fazem. Porém sua interface ainda é pouco intuitiva, fazendo com que usuários iniciantes fiquem perdidos no início.

Nota do AF: 7.0

Links para download:

The Gimp

Paint.Net

PhotoScape

PhotoFiltre

Photo Pos Pro

Paint.NET را قبلاً در اینجا معرفی کرده بودم. یک نرم افزار کدباز برای ویرایش تصاویر دیجیتالی است که با داشتن یک رابط کاربری بسیار خوب و مناسب و پشتیبانی از لایه ها و افکت های گوناگون به رقیبی هر چند کوچک برای نرم افزارهای ویرایش عکس مانند فتوشاپ تبدیل شده است. این نرم افزار با داشتن رابط کاربری ساده و قابلیت های مناسب می تواند به کاربران معمولی و آن هایی که چیزی از فتوشاپ سر در نمی آورند یا از آن نمی خواهند استفاده کنند، کمک کند تا تصاویر دیجیتالی خود را ویرایش کنند و در قالب فرمت های گوناگون ذخیره نمایند.

Paint.NET یک پروژه اوپن سورس و آزاد است. هر کس می تواند با رفتن به وب سایت رسمی Paint.NET (یا هرسایت دیگر +) نسخه ای از آن را دریافت و روی ویندوز خودش نصب کند و بدون پرداخت هیچ هزینه ای از آن برای هر کاری (چه شخصی و چه تجاری) استفاده کند. کد این پروژه در دسترس همه قرار دارد و هرکسی می تواند در پیشرفت این پروژه سهیم باشد.

در این مطلب کوتاه به تاریخچه ایجاد نرم افزار Paint.NET و داستان موفقیت آن می پردازیم. سپس در مورد اینکه چطور درآمدزایی می کند بحث می کنیم و در آخر نیز دلایل موفقیت این پروژه را از نظر خودم به صورت خیلی خلاصه بیان می کنم.

همه چیز از یک پروژه دانشجویی شروع شد…

Paint.NET در بهار سال 2004 به عنوان یک پروژه دانشجویی سال آخر رشته علوم کامپیوتر مقطع لیسانس از دانشگاه Washington State University شروع شد. Rick Brewster دانشجوی با سلیقه ای که روی طراحی رابط کاربری و گرافیک مسلط بود به عنوان رهبر توسعه تیم انتخاب شد. زبان سی شارپ به عنوان زبان برنامه نویسی و دات نت فریم ورک به عنوان پلت فرم توسعه برگزیده شدند. پس از طراحی نسخه اولیه  و پس از هماهنگی با شرکت مایکروسافت، Paint.NET به عنوان نام این پروژه انتخاب شد. پس از این اتفاق، توجه مایکروسافت به این پروژه معطوف شد.

برای نسخه اول، مایکروسافت دو نفر از کارمندان خود را مامور نظارت روی این پروژه کرد. یک نفر به عنوان مربی و راهنما و دیگری به عنوان اسپانسر و تامین کننده هزینه های این پروژه دانشجویی شروع به همکاری کردند. نسخه اول به عنوان یک نرم افزار کدباز تحت دات نت، موفقیت خوبی را بدست آورد. همین موقع ها بود که مایکروسافت در پی جا انداختن پلت فرم دات نت میان برنامه نویسان بود. Paint.NET به عنوان یک مثال قدرتمند و عالی برای پلت فرم دات نت بود. مایکروسافت خوشحال بود چون این پروژه به برنامه نویسان نشان می داد که با دات نت فریم ورک می توان نرم افزارهای بهینه گرافیکی ساخت و کاربران معمولی ویندوز نیز می توانستند از یک نرم افزار قدرتمند تر از Paint به صورت رایگان برای ویرایش تصاویر دیجیتالی خود روی ویندوز استفاده کنند.

نمایی از نسخه 3.5 بتا Paint.NET

در دسامبر 2004، نسخه 2.0 پایدار با امکانات قدرتمند و پشتیبانی از افکت های بیشتر عرضه شد. در می 2005 نسخه 2.1 در حالی که اکثر باگ های نسخه های قبل رفع شده بود و کارایی نرم افزار بالاتر رفته بود، عرضه شد. در نسخه 2.5 پشتیبانی از محلی سازی برای زبان های مختلف اضافه شد و در نسخه 2.6 پروژه به دات نت فریم ورک نسخه 2.0 منتقل شد و از معماری 64بیت به صورت کامل پشتیبانی شد. از این نسخه به بعد Rick Brewster و Tom Jackson توسعه دهنده های اصلی Paint.NET هستند. در می 2006 Paint.NET با دو میلیون دانلود خود را به عنوان یکی از بهترین نرم افزارهای ویرایش تصاویر دیجیتالی در سیستم عامل ویندوز معرفی کرد.

Rick Brewster

ریک بروستر شرکتی به نام dotPDN تاسیس کرد و لوگو و نشان تجاری Paint.NET را به نام خود ثبت کرد. dotPDN شرکتی است که تا الان تنها محصولش Paint.NET است و هزینه های خود را از راه Donation و تبلیغات اینترنتی تامین می کند. هم اکنون آخرین نسخه Paint.NET نسخه 3.5 بتا است که با استفاده از دات نت فریم ورک 3.5 توسعه پیدا می کند. (دریافت کنید) Paint.NET دارای اجتماع کاربری مناسبی است که در آن کاربران به یکدیگر در زمینه های مختلف نرم افزار Paint.NET کمک می کنند. (اینجا) هیچ سئوالی در این جامعه کوچک بی پاسخ نمی ماند.

Paint.NET چگونه درآمدزایی می کند؟

شاید این سئوال برای شما پیش بیاید که این نرم افزار که هم کدباز است و هم رایگان، چگونه درآمدزایی می کند و چه نفعی برای سازنده اش دارد. در پاراگراف بالا اشاره کردم که شرکت dotPDN از طریق Donation (هدیه نقدی کاربران) و تبلیغات اینترنتی هزینه های خود را تامین می کند. اگر به وب سایت Paint.NET مراجعه کنید، در بخش هایی از آن، حتماً تبلیغات گوگل را مشاهده خواهید کرد. بسیاری از کاربران Paint.NET نیز به صورت داوطلبانه به سازنده آن کمک نقدی کرده اند و می کنند. شرکت مایکروسافت هم که اسپانسر این پروژه است. Donation و استفاده از تبلیغات یکی از معمول ترین راه های درآمدزایی نرم افزارهای کدباز هستند. (اطلاعات بیشتر)

ریک بروستر توسعه دهنده اصلی Paint.NET در حال حاضر، در دنیای دات نت و اوپن سورس اسم و رسمی دارد. اینطور که به نظر میرسد در مایکروسافت نیز مشغول به کار است (البته برای این حرفم منبع معتبری پیدا نکردم). موقعیت های شغلی یکی از مزایای توسعه پروژه های نرم افزارهای کدباز است که برای ریک نیز بوجود آمده است.

دلایل موفقیت Paint.NET (از نظر من)

اولین و مهمترین دلیل موفقیت Paint.NET از نظر من اوپن سورس بودن این پروژه است. اگر کدباز نبود امکان این که توجه شرکت مایکروسافت را به خودش جلب کند بسیار پایین بود و اگر مایکروسافت از آن پشتیبانی نمی کرد، شاید هیچ وقت تا این حد موفق نمی شد. دلیل مهم دیگر موفقیت این پروژه، بی شک دانشگاه واشنگتن استیت واستاد راهنمای ریک بروستر آقای Jack Hagemeister بوده اند که با انجام چنین پروژه ای موافقت نموده اند و امکان همکاری با مایکروسافت را برای او فراهم کرده اند.

موقعیت ریک را در زمان دانشجویی با یک دانشجوی رشته کامپیوتر در ایران مقایسه کنید. آیا دانشگاه های ما به چنین پروژه هایی بها می دهند؟ آیا ارتباط دانشگاه و صنعت در ایران آنقدر قوی است که یک شرکت تجاری اسپانسر یک پروژه دانشجویی شود و به پیشرفت آن کمک کند؟

به نظر شما اگر آقای بروستر در یکی از دانشگاه های ایران دانشجو بود، می توانست چنین پروژه موفقی را به انجام برساند!؟

farasun.wordpress.com

منابع :

• وب سایت Paint.NET
• ویکی پدیا
• وبلاگ Rick Brewster در MSDN
• وبلاگ Paint.NET

I couldn’t sleep so I fiddled with Paint.net and made a Halloween pumpkin wallpaper background. It’s still very amateurish but I had fun anyway and wanted to share it with anyone who takes a liking to it.

This can be used on MySpace, Twitter, Yuwie, Tagged, CafeMom.

Anyway, here’s the pic. Just right click on your mouse and save to your computer.

Happy Halloween!

Here is a simple Halloween pumpkin puzzle to print. You can glue it to a piece of cardboard and cut out the shapes. Or you can join Paint.net Help and Tutorials on CafeMom to see how to do it an easier way. I just have no time.

This is great to put in goodie bags!

Um dos melhores editores de imagens ganha uma nova versão, com várias novidades e novo visual!

Download: Paint.NET 3.5 Beta 1

Créditos da imagem ao @_rauls.

Here are some Halloween ghost backgrounds that can be used on your Twitter page. If you’d like to see it in action just click on any photo and it’ll take you to my Twitter page.

If you like it and want to use it you just have to right click the mouse on the photo you like and save it to your desktop or computer.

Thanks!

I am totally exited, this was a great day. Well, bloggingwise that is. Not so much for anything else, as I have been on the computer non stop from early this morning and got nothing else done.

But it was worth it, because I can now make screenshots, opened another account and weblog and found a way to easy comment on other blogs. So many great advantages because of one clear moment.

That moment came this morning when I was being unhappy with all of the commenting thing I wrote about yesterday. I still was not able to comment in an easy way on Blogger, although I found some more ways to comment, like Intense debate like someone suggested. But on Blogger that was no possibility.

And I also found a blogpost yesterday about Gravatar and the question why it still is not mainstream. I wish it was, but as it is not, I had to deal with that. And thought about another way to comment.

Then suddenly I had a clear moment. Why not signing up for a Blogger account. My first thought was that I would have to get a blog there, and as I have already so many and even started a whole new selfhosted WordPress blog, one that I did not have time to post to yet, it would be illogical.

But maybe I could just make an account so that I could easy comment on Blogger. That seemed like a very simple idea, what would be easy to do.

So I did. And it worked perfect. I had a photo uploaded, I could use my own name. Brilliant!

Then when I was almost finished I thought to just look how Blogger works. And it seemed not to complicated so thought, well just make another blog there, make one page where I can put links to my other blogs.

When I looked at the empty page of a brand new blog, I suddenly wished that I could make screenshots. I always liked screenshots and if I saw one I always wished I could do that too. But I never knew how, think I tried sometime but as it did not immediately work I must have stopped it, as I am not that patient.

But now I googled screenshots and got a page take-a-screenshot where it showed very clear how to do it. Well, that most have been the most easy thing I have ever learned. One click, past it and it is done!

Although it got a bit more time consuming after that, as I wanted to have all the screen shots the same size, but in essence it was amazingly easy. And because I could already work with Paintnet, it was not to difficult to adjust the sizes.

Then I copied them on that new blog and have a sort of landingpage of my Bloggeraccount with all my blogs and twitter accounts together. I like the landingpage actually and might make even a more compact one an other time.

And last but not least, I can comment on all Blogger blogs a whole lot easier. At least I hope so.

Was ist Paint.NET? Bildbearbeitungs-Software für Windows-Rechner zum Nulltarif. Das Programm wird an der Washington State University zusammen mit Hilfe von Microsoft entwickelt und ist als kostenloser Ersatz für “MS Paint” gedacht. Features: Ebenen, Effekte. Die Software benötigt ein installiertes Microsoft .NET Framework 2 auf deinem XP-Rechner. Die Vistas brauchen keine zusätzliche Software.
Download (Freeware, Windows Vista od. XP) >

Here is some more pictures:

My father bought this software for me and my sister to draw. I had drawn one:

Please look out for more!

I am finding Layers and Level Adjustment to be the two most indispensable elements of Paint.Net.  Whether trying to fix outside shots that are too dark, or inside shots that are really dark, brightness and contrast need to be tweaked in nearly all of my Egyptian photos.  But some parts need tweaked more than others.

This article covers what I have learned about selectively adjusting different parts of photographs by taking advantage of layers, level adjustment, and judicious cropping.

Picking and Choosing

For reasons I have yet to figure out, a lot of the pictures I took in Egypt have a slightly dark almost overcast look to them.  I am assuming this may have something to do with my camera trying to adjust to how intense everything was.  Between the sun, the sand, and the reflective tones of pretty much everything there, Egypt is a pretty bright place.  This gives most of my pictures a sort of hazy look which I try to correct before posting.

This is the picture in its untouched form. See how overcast it looks?

The problem I have been running into is that when I brighten and sharpen things up, the sky tends to take on a grainy, sometimes even pebbly look.  I don’t mind having a hazy sky.  I think that kind of gives a feel for how blasted hot it is over there.  The soft blues and lavenders of the Saharan sky contrast great with the golden hue of the statues, structures, and landscape.  So the issue is how do I keep the soft texture of the sky while sharpening everything below the horizon?  If only there was some way to selectively adjust some parts of the picture while leaving others untouched..

Note: If you are scratching your head and saying “Grainy?  I can’t tell the difference between the sky on the left (below) and the sky on the right,” try clicking on the picture.  To include the pictures in the post I have to reduce them to fit the format of the Pressrow theme.  This improves the resolution, which reduces the effects of the grainy appearance.  So if you can’t tell without clicking on the picture, why bother?  Artistic integrity!  That, and the fact that the picture should be judged based on how it looks at full size, not how it looks when reduced for publishing in the blog.  In some blogs this is not an issue, but the intent of the blog in development is to place equal (if not more) emphasis on the appearance of the photographs.

Before and after adjusting. Note how grainy the sky is on the right.

Fortunately, with Paint.Net there are ways to selectively work with different parts of a picture.  This little tutorial will take you step-by-step through the process of correcting the brightness and contrast of an outdoor photograph while leaving the sky untouched.  Since the Sphinx pictures received the most clicks in the last post, I will be using another shot of the Sphinx as the example in this tutorial.  I aim to please!

There are probably other ways of doing this, but using layers allows you to do tons of things with a photograph, so they are worth becoming familiar with.  The way I solved the above/below the horizon issue was by combining two layers of the same picture.  With the top layer I cut out the sky and make my adjustments to what is left.  The bottom layer is left alone, so when I combine the two the end result is the unadjusted sky over the adjusted landscape.  

Part A:  Setting Up the Layers

1. Load the image you want to adjust into Paint.Net
2. In the Layers window, click on the Properties button in the lower right corner. 
3. Change the Name of the layer to “top” and click OK. 
4. In the Layers window, click on the Duplicate Layer button.  There should now be two identical layers in the Layers window, both named “top.” 
5. Click on the lower of the two layers in the Layer window.  The lower layer should now be highlighted in blue.
6. In the Layers window, click again on the Properties button and rename the lower layer to “bottom.”  Click OK.  You should now have two identical layers, one named “top” and the other named “bottom.”
7. In the Layers window, click on the “top” layer so that it is highlighted.
8. Now click the Add New Layer button at the bottom left side of the Layer Window.  You should now have three layers in the Layer window—a blank layer at the top (probably named Layer 3), the “top” layer, and the “bottom” layer.
9. If the blank layer is not highlighted then click on it so that it will be.  Click on the Properties button again and rename the blank layer to “middle” and click OK.
10. Now click on the “top” layer so that it is highlighted, then click on the Move Layer Up button at the bottom of the Layers window.  You should now have the “top” layer at the top of the Layer window, the “bottom” layer at the bottom, and the blank “middle” layer in the middle.  Makes perfect sense, huh!

 

We are now going to set up the middle layer to serve as a neutral background to the top layer.  We are going to be cutting away large sections of the top layer, and the middle layer will help by showing a nice bright color to indicate where we have cut part of the picture away.  I like to have a color rather than a transparent background because any spare pixels you might miss in your “cleaned up” section will show up better against a bright color than it will against the default checker-board that serves as the background when cutting with a transparent background.

11. Ok, this is important so follow closely.  Click on the “middle” layer to be sure it is highlighted.  Now go to the Colors window and select a color to serve as the background for the “top” layer.  I use turquoise because it shows up well in the background.
12. Once you have selected a color from the Colors window, go to the Tools window and click on the Paint Bucket tool.  Once you have done this, making sure the middle layer is highlighted in the Layers window, click on the picture in the main window with the Paint Bucket tool.  If you do this correctly, then nothing will change in the picture itself, but the middle layer in the Layers window will turn the color that you selected for the background.  If instead part of your picture turned the background color, you messed up!  Click Undo and repeat this step making sure that the MIDDLE layer is selected in the Layers window!  

Part B:  ‘Scuse Me, While I Crop the Sky!

With apologies to Mr. Jimi, in this section we will be cutting out the sky in the top layer so we can make adjustments to the landscape.  As we cut away the top layer, the background color from the middle layer will shine through, making it easy to track our progress.  To make things easy, we will be using the Magic Wand tool where we can.

1. In the Layers window, click on the top layer, making it the active layer.
2. In the Tools window click on the Magic Wand.  The idea here is to use the Magic Wand to select as much of the sky as possible, without selecting anything beneath the horizon.  This involves playing around with the Tolerance level, and you will probably have to make a couple sweeps.
3. For this picture I set the Tolerance to 29% for the first sweep and then clicked in the upper left corner of the picture.  Since every picture is different, you will have to play around with both the Tolerance level and where you click in your picture.  The most important thing is that you only select the parts that you want to cut out of the top layer, which in this case is the sky.  If anything else is selected, then just click the Magic Wand somewhere else and try again.
4. Once you have selected a part of the picture that you want to cut out, just hit the delete key on your keyboard.  The selected section will disappear, exposing the bright color of the middle layer beneath.  I had to readjust the Tolerance lower each time I selected a new section to cut. 
5. After you have cut away as much as you safely can using the Magic Wand to make your selections, Zoom the picture up to 400-500% and clean up the rest with the Eraser tool.  The end result should have nothing but the background color showing in all of the sections you want to cut away, which in this instance is the sky.

Little by little the sky melts away.

In the next section we will do our color and light adjustments  

Part C:  Adjusting the Color Brightness and Contrast in the Top Layer

1. To begin this section, make certain that the top layer is still highlighted in the Layers window.  If it isn’t then click on it now to make it the active layer.
2. Click on the Adjustments drop-down menu at the top of Paint.Net and select Levels.  This will bring up the Levels Adjustment window. 
3. There are two sides to the Levels Adjustment window—Input and Output.  I have only had to use the Input adjustments for my pictures, so that is all we will deal with.  You will notice that there are two values and two slides on the Input level indicator.  The top value is the White Point and represents the brightest color that appears in the image.  The bottom value is the Black Point and represents the darkest color in the image. (For more about the Levels Adjustment window click here).  The default values are 255 for the White Point and zero for the Black Point.  I have had the best results with my Egypt pictures setting the White Point between 210 and 245, and the Black Point between 5 and 20.  For this picture, I set the White Point at 220 and the Black Point at 10.
4. For your image, try different combinations of White and Black Points until you get just the right level of brightness and contrast you are looking for.  When you are done, click OK in the Levels Adjustment window.  

Part D:  Finishing the Image

We are now ready to combine the layers of our image!

1. In the Layers window, click on the middle layer to highlight it.
2. With the middle layer active (highlighted), click on the Delete Layer button in the Layer window.
3. With the middle layer gone, the bottom layer is now visible behind the top layer.  The landscape which you adjusted in the top layer should be covering the unadjusted landscape from the bottom layer, leaving the exposed sky from the bottom layer showing through.
4. Click on the Image drop-down menu at the top of Paint.Net and select Flatten.  This should combine the top and bottom layers in the Layers window into one layer, probably called “Background.”



Left: Untouched. Middle: Entire pic is adjusted. Right: Adjusted but with original sky.

Congratulations!  You are ready to save the image.  The above image shows how the picture looked before adjustment, how it looks when the entire picture is adjusted (note the grainy sky), and how it looks with just the landscape adjusted and the sky preserved.

The finished product

Doesn’t the above finished product look so much better with the landscape, Sphinx, and pyramids brightened up and sharpened, but with the nice hazy sky left intact?  I thought so too.  And there is a lot more you can do by playing around with both Layers and Level Adjustment.  You can cut the image into as many layered sections as you wish and perform different effects on each before combining them.  You can also adjust specific colors in the Level Adjustment tool.

Taste the colors!

For the next post I think I am going to stick with Cairo.  Some street scenes might be nice.  And for the first time I am going to include some of my reflections from my travel journal, Shemsu’s Voyages!

Em hotep!

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