Paint Shop Pro v.8
Working with the auto-fix script.
(Although written for v.8 it all works the same in v.9.)
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Jasc says "Automated Productivity Scripts
Save time and effort by eliminating repetitive tasks with
new Script recorder and editor. You can edit and
playback any sequence of editing steps,
or choose from dozens of presets."
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Let's look at two examples:
Originals vs. Auto-fix
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This script provides "one-step" photo enhancement
by running the
following commands in order: Automatic Color Balance, Automatic
Contrast Enhancement, Clarify, Automatic Saturation Enhancement,
Edge Preserving Smooth and Sharpen.
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The original
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Auto-fix with default settings... Wonderful
results!
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Original
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Auto-fix with default settings.
This time the results are too warm.
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We'll get back to Scripts in
a moment.
Here's the way I have customized my tools to work on
photographs. You'll notice that there is a drop down
menu that the program provides as a guide to the order
in which to do the various steps necessary to correct
a photo. I have substituted Unsharp Mask for Sharpen.
Just to the right of that I have added an icon for Resize,
Zoom to 100%, Histogram Adjustment, Add a Border and
finally, I can click on the JPEG Optimize button when
I'm ready to save the photo. Go to View> Customize
to choose the tools you want to work with. You can drag
icons up into that area to the right of Enhance Photo. |
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The Script Tool Bar
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First there is the dropdown menu, then from left to right,
the icons stand for: Run Selected Script, Edit Selected
Script, Interactive Script Playback Toggle, Run Script
(let's you choose from a list), Stop Script, Start Script
Recording, Pause Script Recording, Cancel Script Recording
and finally Save Script Recording. |
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Let's move on now to more serious thinking about how
to use the Auto-fix script for a series of photographs.
During my initial trials, I found the script produced images
that were warmer in color temperature than I wanted (the
rock shots above). So I looked at that part of the script:
Color balance the image if it is not greyscale
if not(info['PixelFormat'] == App.Constants.PixelFormat.Grey
or info['PixelFormat'] == App.Constants.PixelFormat.GreyA):
App.Do( Environment, 'AutoColorBalance', {
'RemoveColorCast': App.Constants.Boolean.true,
'Strength': 30,
'Temperature': 6000,
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Silent,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match
}
})
... and decided to change the color temperature
from 6000 to 6500 and the ExecutionMode to Interactive
from Silent so that the script would stop running long
enough for me to make any adjustments if 6500 still wasn't
right. I needed to uncheck Remove color cast. So the changes
look like this:
'Strength': 30,
'Temperature': 6500,
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Interactive,
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Then, after working with a whole folder full of images
from scanned slides, I decided that the Sharpen command
at the end of the script just wasn't doing the trick:
# Sharpen the image
App.Do( Environment, 'Sharpen', {
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Silent,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match
}
})
I opened one of the images again, set the width to 500
pixels, my ususal setting for horizontal photos (375 for
vertical). I started the script recording, applied the
setting for an unsharp mask (Radius 1.00, Strength 50 and
Clipping 5) and used the Save Script Recording icon. Now
I took this bit of code from that recorded script:
Use the unsharp mask
App.Do( Environment, 'UnsharpMask', {
'Clipping': 5,
'Radius': 1,
'Strength': 50,
'GeneralSettings': {
'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default,
'DialogPlacement': {
'ShowMaximized': App.Constants.Boolean.false,
'Rect': ((351,183),323,375)
},
'PreviewVisible': App.Constants.Boolean.true,
'AutoProof': App.Constants.Boolean.true,
'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match
}
})
...and put it in the place of the Sharpen code in the
original script. |
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Original Auto-fix script used.
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With my own Auto-fix settings.
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Remember... before you
make any changes to a script save it as a new file name
with the correct file extension.
To review: I have 'tweaked' or customized the script!
This gave me a chance to adjust the color temperature along
the way and substitute unsharp mask settings for sharpen.
Outside of the fact that the building is not squared up,
I'm very pleased with the results, especially since the
original was a 35 mm slide. I chose this slide because
of the shadow area, little details and sky. |
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JPEGs
vs. gifs for photographs click here.
A
great resource for Paint Shop Pro
Eleanor T. Culling contact
me!
Eleanor's Travels - examples
of my travel photography.
All Photos on this site are © protected
by
Eleanor T. Culling - 2005
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