Tutorial: AKVIS Chameleon

Blazing photo of a girl

The example was made in the old version of the Chameleon plug-in.
Now the technique of using AKVIS Chameleon is different, but the result will be the same.

Consult the article "Blend mode" to get the same result with the new version. In the older versions (before v.5.0) this mode was called Snapshot and applied automatically right after you launch the plugin from the menu Filter.

When creating a photo collage with AKVIS Chameleon you can use Snapshot mode that allows not only smoothing the borders of the inserted object and adjusting its color range, but as well making the object semi-transparent, so that the texture and the relief of the main image is seen through.

In this case, before you paste the object, take a snapshot of the background picture by selecting the command Filter - AKVIS - Chameleon (Take Snapshot) in your photo editor, then paste the object, adjust its size and position and start AKVIS Chameleon by calling the command Filter - AKVIS - Chameleon (Use Snapshot).

The following example demonstrates Snapshot mode in action. To make a collage we use two images: a burning photo frame and a black and white photography. We will make a collage of these two photos creating a blazing photo effect.

First of all we take a snapshot of the image with burning paper by selecting the command Filter - AKVIS - Chameleon (Take Snapshot). Then we select the entire black and white photo, copy the selection and paste it into a new layer of the image with burning paper. Having inserted the photo, reduce it by 20 % to get the following picture:

Now we cut off all unnecessary parts of the black and white photo to give it the form of the burning photo frame. First we reduce the Opacity parameter to 50%, so that the burning paper could be seen through.

Now we activate the Quick Mask mode and paint over the areas that should be kept with a hard edged Pencil tool or Brush Tool. In other photo editors you can select this area with other selection tools.

We switch to the Standard mode and see that the area that was not painted in the Quick Mask mode fall into the selection.

Now we clear the selected area by using the command Edit - Clear or by pressing the DELETE key on the keyboard. When the selection is removed we see the following photo: