Tutorial: AKVIS Enhancer

Enhancer Plugin: Workspace

To call AKVIS Enhancer plugin you should select it from the list of effects. For this purpose use the command Filter - AKVIS - Enhancer in Adobe Photoshop; the menu item Effects - Plugins - AKVIS - Enhancer if you work with Corel (Jasc) Paint Shop Pro; or Effects - AKVIS - Enhancer if you use Corel PHOTO-PAINT.

Under Windows the AKVIS Enhancer program window looks like that:

Under Mac OS X the plugin window looks like that:

Most part of the AKVIS Enhancer plug-in's window is taken by the Image window with two tabs Before and After. The original image is shown in the Before tab, the After tab shows the processed photo. You can toggle between the tabs using the Tab key. To compare the original and the resulting images, you can just left-click on the image in the After tab.

In the right part of the window you can see the Toolbar with buttons and options.

In the upper part of the Toolbar you can see the following buttons:

• The button allows applying the result to the image and closing the AKVIS Enhancer window.
• The button calls information about the program.
• The button calls the help files of the program.
• The button allows selecting the language of the program's interface. To switch to another language, you should left-click the button and select the required language from the fall-out menu.
• The button closes the program window without applying the result of image editing.

Navigate and scale the image using the Navigator window. The red frame shows the part of the image that is now visible in the Image Window.

Drag the red frame to view the required part of the image in the Image Window. To move the red frame, put the cursor inside the frame, press the left mouse button, and keeping it pressed, drag the frame.

Besides, you can scroll the image in the Image Window by pressing the space bar on the keyboard and by dragging the image with the left mouse button.

Use the buttons and , as well as the slider to scale the image in the Image Window. By clicking on or by moving the slider to the right, you scale up the image; by clicking on or by moving the slider to the left, you scale down the image in the Image Window

It is also possible to enter a new scale coefficient into the appropriate field and press the button Enter (Return on Macintosh).

Besides, to scale the image you can use hot-keys: + and CTRL++ (Command++ on Macintosh) to scale up the image, - and CTRL+- (Command+- on Macintosh) to scale down the image.

There are four sliders that influence the outcome: Shadows, Highlights, Level of Detail and Lightness.

• The Shadows parameter allows details to be revealed in the underexposed parts of the image. The values vary between 0 and 100. As the parameter value increases, the dark parts of the image get lighter and the level of detail in these parts increases. But it does not cause loss of details in the light areas.
• The Highlights parameter allows details to be revealed in the light areas of the image. The values vary between 0 and 100. When you move the slider to the right, the parameter value increases, the light parts of the image get darker and the level of detail in these parts increases. If you set a high value for this parameter it can cause loss of middle tones on some images and reduce the image depth.
• The Level of Detail parameter defines the amount of details detected. It accepts values between 0 and 15 with the default value of 5. The higher the parameter value, the sharper the color transition and the more detail is visible. On underexposed images the high value of this parameter may cause noise.
• The Lightness parameter allows the change of the overall lightness of the image - to make it darker or lighter. It accepts values between 0 and 100. By default it is set to 50. As you move the slider to the right, the image gets lighter; as you move the slider to the left - it gets darker.

In the Presets field you can save favourite settings as a preset to use them in the future. When you launch the plugin, it uses the settings of the last used preset.

In the Hint group you can see the description of AKVIS Enhancer or the description of the parameter that has been last changed.