This chapter will cover the effects of Paint.NET. It will go over basic image manipulation and the application of various special effects to images.
In this chapter we will learn about the following effects:
- Artistic
- Blurs
- Distort
- Noise
- Photo
- Render
- Stylize
One of the most interesting and robust parts about Paint.NET are the effects. The effects are broken up into seven categories: Artistic, Blurs, Distort, Noise, Photos, Render, and Stylize. These are shown in the following screenshot:
Every image actually tells a story. Even very small adjustments can help bring focus to parts of the story you wish to tell. By combining effects with adjustments along with a little creativity, you will be able to accentuate the story you are telling; making it more alive than it would have been otherwise.
You will find yourself using some of these effects quite often, while others you may never use. I, however, recommend experimenting with all of them.
It is best to resize the image to a smaller size by navigating to Image | Resize from the menu or using the Ctrl + R shortcut and then taking the image down to something more manageable so you won't end up using many resources. A standard DSLR camera will create a very large image. If you are saving it for the Web, as a general rule, reduce the size of the image before adding any effects, unless your computer has large amount of memory.
There are three Artistic effects: Ink Sketch, Oil Painting, and Pencil Sketch. You will notice that some of these effects work much better on some images than others. While one effect may give you its intended effect on an image, it may just look strange on other images.
Ink Sketch will take your image and give it the look of being drawn by a black ballpoint pen. This effect is limited to black only, so if you want to use another color, say red, it will be rather difficult. You can combine other effects and adjustments to this effect, but some adjustments and effects won't work on top of it (Sepia, for instance, won't do a thing to the photo if added after Ink Sketch).
Ink Sketch has two adjustments: Ink Outline and Coloring, as shown in the following screenshot:
Ink Sketch works by figuring out the outlines of the image and replacing them with dark lines. Ink Outline determines how much attention Ink Sketch pays to those edges with the ink outline. This is similar to the tolerance for the other tools. It has a value between 1 and 100. The lower the number, the lesser edges it will see, and vice versa, filling in the smallest lines and shadows.
Coloring will add in the original colors from the image between the dark lines. As with Ink Outline, Coloring has a value between 1 and 100. The higher the number, the more color it will add and vice versa.
Oil Painting is meant to convert your image into a replica of an oil painting. It can pull this off sometimes; at other times it will end up making your image look blotchy and uneven. How well this effect works depends on your photo and on what your idea of an oil painting is.
Oil Painting has two controls: Brush Size and Coarseness.
Brush Size has a value between 1 and 8, 1 being the finest brush, which hardly has any effect, and 8 which looks like it could be a horse's tail. The larger the number, the more it will replicate a brush with more thickness.
Coarseness represents how "thick" you would like your "oil paint" to be. Coarseness has a value between 1 and 255. The smaller the number, the thinner the paint. A larger number is meant to replicate very thick paint.
Pencil Sketch is meant to replicate what your image would look like if sketched by a lead pencil. The Pencil Sketch effect will remove all color from the image and trace the lines with gray, pencil-like lines. This gives it a much softer look than Ink Sketch, but sometimes, it looks more like a black-and-white copy of your image rather than an actual pencil sketch. Pencil Sketch has two controls, as shown in the following screenshot:
The Pencil tip size has a value between 1 and 20; 1 being the sharpest, finest point, and 20 being the thickest.
Range has a value ranging from -20 to 20. This determines how much of the photo will be "in pencil". This works just like the tolerance in many tools.