New in v6.40 of Photofiltre:

• Optimized for Windows 7 and Vista.
• New large icon for Windows 7 / Vista (256×256)
• More brushes under advanced paintbrush tool.
• Larger Tool Palette
• More fluid selection box (The ants are waltzing now rather than dancing)
• Accepts pasting of .wmf and .emf files (Windows metafiles and enhanced metafiles)
• Increased compatibilty when opening .png files.
• Various bug fixes.

Photofiltre version 6.40 - Tool palette is now in a 3×4 format and there are 5 new brushes in the Advanced Paintbrush Tool.

Photofiltre v6.40 download

Installing new fonts:

1. Extract/Unzip font file (.ttf, .fon, .otf)

2. Windows Vista – Right mouse click on font file and select install.

3. Windows XP – Move font file to c:\windows\fonts or use the Fonts Control panel.

4. Restart Photofiltre after installing new font

Aenima

Aerofoil

akaDora

Aspire

 Baroque Script

Chopin Script

Civitype FG

Dragonwick

 Freebooter Script

Henry Morgan Hand

Jane Austen

Jellyka Endless Voyage

Kingthings Wrote

Monika

Mutlu Ornamental

One Fell Swoop

 Precious

Saginaw

Scriptina

Selfish

The King and Queen

About Lomo Photography.

The Lomo Photographic effect is based on the original Russian made 35mm LOMO LC-A compact camera. This camera was considered a cheap consumer level camera for the masses at the time and the final photographic results were far from perfect. Photos often turned out being overexposed, colour shifted and blurry. Despite this, Lomo photography has captured the imagination of photographic freaks from all over the world and has a cult following. Original LOMO LC-A cameras are highly sought after and command a premium price, when they come up for sale.

Fortunately, the Lomo style is easy to reproduce with Photofiltre. Lomo typically has high contrast, strong colours, and a noticeable vignette.

Photo Credit: slayer23 (Flickr)

Plugins needed.

For this you’ll need to download and install two plugins for Photofiltre:

• Histogram
• RGB Fantasy

1. Download the Plugins from the Photofiltre site here
2. Extract the files to Photofiltre Plugins directory: 

C:\Program Files\PhotoFiltre\Plugins

Remember to close and restart Photofiltre to make the plugins active.

The Technique.

Step 1.

Open your picture in Photofiltre.

Goto the Histogram Plugin: Filter>>Plugin>>Histogram

Apply the Equalization and click OK

After Histogram Equalization.

Step 2.

Adjust Gamma, Contrast and Color:

Gamma +6, Contrast +6,  Color +1 clicks

These settings are a guide only, use different settings for different pictures.

Remember rule 10of Lomo photography “there are no rules“.. so feel free to go crazy with these settings.

 Result after gamma, contrast and color adjustment.

Step 3.

Open the RGB Fantasy plugin

Filter>>Plugin>>RGB Fantasy

Settings: RGB+ 30/0/-20

Result after RGB fantasy plugin adjustment.

Step 4.

Add noise +25 ….and then soften

and then…

Result after adding noise and softening.

Step 5.

Adding the vignette.

The easiest way to add a vignette is to use the Photomasque. To do that you’ll either need to find a vignette mask or create your own.

Here are two I’ve created which you can use:

Right mouse click and save these to your Photofiltre masks collection.

Apply the mask by going to Filter>>Photomasque

The end result of a Lomo style photo created using Photofiltre.

Lomo photography links:

• Lomography
• Lomophotos website
• Wikipedia overview of Lomo
• Lomo group photos on Flickr

Original Photo Credit: Michele Eve  (Flickr)

Getting Started.

Commence by opening up your photo in Photofiltre.

Step 1.

Next, from the top menu goto Adjust>> Brightness/Contrast and turn the Contrast up to 100% and click OK.

Step 2.

Goto Adjust>>Hue/Saturation and reduce Saturation to -55%

Step 3.

Adjust>>Brightness/Contrast

Set Contrast to 100%

Step 4.

Adjust>>Hue/Saturation

Reduce Saturation to -30%

Finished.

Depending on your original photo, you may alter these settings to suit your own taste.

Using color channels.

Color channels can be used to increase or decrease the contrast or saturation of an individual colour thus giving emphasis on one colour. Alternatively, it may be used to reduce the amount of one colour such less red,reen or blue etc.

Altering the color channels for the above process at any stage can give some interesting results and is well worth playing around with.

If you’ve ever seen photos that have intense colours and high contrast or at least have colours that are out of the ordinary, then chances are it is the result of a famous technique called the Cross Processed style.

Here are some examples of crossed processed photos from Flickr:

 Photo credit: laullon

 Photo Credit: Sifter

 Photo Credit: HKmPUA

Photo Credits: driftwood & shimmihe

 Photo Credit: etrusia_uk(away)

Photo Credit: HKmPUA

Photo Credit: Erik J. Gustafson

Photo Credit: zzzack

When perfect photos are boring…enter cross processing. 

Cross processing techniques have existed since the early 1960’s when it was discovered that processing film in the wrong chemicals produced pictures with unnatural colour and contrast shifts. A common technique was shooting with E6 (slide) film and then processing in C41 (negative) film chemicals. However, with the many combinations of film stock and processing techniques available, numerous types of effects were possible. The final results of cross processing were also quite unpredictable, which added to the excitement…you never knew what you were going to get.

Cross Process in fashion

Cross processed photos are often used in magazine and billboard advertising and were very much in vogue during the 1980’s and 90’s for fashion photography where the arty, surreal look with strong colours, high contrast and skin tones set them apart from regular photographic techniques.

Classic cross processed photos, based on the original photographic techniques tend to have high contrast highlights, with bluish shadows, reds appearing as magenta and highlights with a yellowy green tinge. These colour and contrast shifts are quite easily to replicate with Photofiltre.

Here’s how to do it…

Cross over into the cross processed zone with Photofiltre.

Getting Started…

Though there are many ways to manipulate colour and contrast with Photofiltre, but I’ve found the Photofiltre plugin Histogram Editor to be an excellent way for creating cross processed style photos. Download the Histogram Editor plugin from the main Photofiltre website here:

Photofiltre Plugins Page

1. Extract the file: histogramme.pfl

2. Copy it to the Photofiltre plugins folder (C:\Program Files\PhotoFiltre\Plugins)

3. Restart Photofiltre to make the plugin active

4. Histogram editor should appear in the Filter>>Plug-in menu.

Ready to roll.

Open up your picture…then…

Open the Histogram Editor Filter>>Plug-in>>Histogram…

Starting the Histogram Editor. Photo Credit: “Keep it Cool” by beX out loud

Histogram Editor box.

Start with the RED color.

Slide the lower triangle adjustments that control red highlights and shadows towards the centre. Click the PREVIEW button as you go to see the effect of the adjustment, you’ll want to increase the red saturation.

Next do the GREEN colour. Once again slide the bottom pointer towards the middle  and Preview the result. Increase the green saturation

Lastly, do the BLUE colour. For this, adjust the side adjustments slightly towards the middle. Preview the result.

Click OK, when you’re satisfied with the result.

Principles of creating cross processed photos.

If anything, the driving principle behind cross processed photo’s is NOT to have perfect colours, perfect contrast and balance… but to have photos that stand out from the ordinary with bright colour shifts and high contrast. Thus, there is no right or wrong way to create a cross processed photo, but when people ask you how did you get those interesting colours, then you know you’re on the right track.

Using the Histogram Gamma control.

In addition to changing the position of input/output levels of the histogram, you can also try changing the straight line to more of a curve with the Gamma adjustment of each colour.

The procedure is much the same…start with the RED colour and turn up the intensity then to the GREEN turn up the intensity and finally the BLUE which needs to be reduced slightly.

Changing both Gamma and colour input/output controls produces interesting results.

Using the Equalisation setting.

Try swapping the Adjustment setting from Linear/Gamma to Equalization and see the effect. If you like what you see then keep it and click OK. If not, then change it back to Linear/Gamma.

Make multiple variations and choose the best.

It’s worth making multiple variations of the same photo… each with a slightly different style. This way you have a choice of many cross processed styles to select from when the time comes to choose.

Duplicate the image by using Image>>Duplicate to make a copy of the original, then work with the duplicate copy.

Six styles of cross processed photo made with Photofiltre histogram plugin. Which one do you like?

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on creating cross process style photos using Photofiltre..but wait there is more! coming in Part 2, more ways of creating cross processed style photos with Photofiltre.

Cheers,

Jeff.

Links to Cross Processing:

Wikipedia – Cross Processing

I present to you 29 great horror fonts to add some hair raising terror to your designs and pictures. Use with caution! Of course these fonts are not evil, but just plain scary. Sort of like spilling coffee over your expensive new laptop… now that’s scary.
Most of these fonts are sourced from dafont.com as they have the best font preview interface in my opinion. Other fonts I have found on free font websites such as acidfonts, fontspace and urbanfonts.

Installing new fonts is super easy with these basic steps:

1. Extract/Unzip font file (.ttf, .fon, .otf)

2. Windows Vista – Right mouse click on font file and select install.

3. Windows XP – Move font file to c:\windows\fonts or use the Fonts Control panel.

4. Restart Photofiltre after installing new font

If you need to know more about  installing fonts, check my post:

Installing new fonts: A guide for Photofiltre users.

A Lolita Scorned

 Amped For Evil

Buffied

Burning Wrath

Creepsville

Castle Dracustein 

Daemonesque 

Feast Of Flesh 

Fuehrer

Ghostly Panic 

Green Fuz

Gypsy Curse

Haunt

Homocide Effect

Kreepy Krawly

BN Manson Nights

Monster Child

Necropsy

Nightmare

No Fear

Panophobia 

Plasma Drip 

Satan Possessed

Scrawlings

Shaun of the Dead

Skinner

SNIPER

Terror Pro

You Murderer

Here’s a quick way of cutting out an object and pasting it onto another background using Photofiltre’s Polygon Tool. It’s a similar way to my earlier post “How to make photo cutouts and clippings using Photofiltre” but less complicated. This method is widely used by many Photofiltre users, just checkout some of the YouTube Photofiltre tutorials using this technique.

Let’s get started….

Select your picture.

This technique works best where there is no internal cut-out required and you can simply cut around the outside of the object to select and then copy it.

Photo credit: Chilli Photograph(Flickr)

Select the Polygon Tool.

If you can’t find the Polygon Tool click on the arrow pointer to reveal the selection tools.

Select the Polygon Tool…Begin at the corner. 

 Start with an edge carefully clicking around the outside until….

 …you meet up at the beginning. The object is then selected.

 Right mouse click and select COPY.

Paste onto background picture graphic. Open up your background.

Check out my Downloads Page for sources of backgrounds.

I sourced these four Sunvectors from Photobucket.com…..Click here for more.

Right mouse click and select PASTE. Then, move it into position, and finally right mouse click and select VALIDATE PASTE.

Smoothing the edges using Antialiasing or Progressive Contour when pasting.

Cutting out with the Polygon Tool is not a perfect process, you may notice a few jaggy edges and perhaps parts of the original background still present when you paste in. You can improve the final paste by selecting Antialias or Progressive Contour settings. 

Find the settings on the main menu:

Selection>>Antialiasing…

There are 3 options:

• None – No Change.
• Antialias – Smooths the edges and reduces jaggy bits.
• Progressive Contour – feathers the edges of the cut out.

See the difference between Antialias and Progressive Contour.

Using the Blur Tool to fix up edges.

The Blur Tool is useful for fixing up jaggy edges or some of the remaining background . Remember to use carefully and don’t over do it as too much blurring may make it look worse.

Using the Blur Tool.

Final product! 

Matsu inside Sunvector.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Jeff.

Original photo credit: Madaboutasia

Original photo credit: Uros Velickovic

Original photo credit: Petar Ceklic

Original photo credit: Per Ola Wiberg

Original Photo Credit: Thai Jasmine

If you want see more photos like these, there’s a whole dedicated group on flickr devoted to the Focal BW style. Check it out here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/focal_bw/

The basic method of creating Focal BW with Photofiltre.

1.Open up your colour photo…

2. Select the Polygon Tool

3. With a steady hand, click around the outside of the flower.

4. When the ends of the polygon tool join up, a “selection” is made. Right mouse click inside this and select Invert Selection.

5. Now click on the Grayscale button.   This will make everything gray except for the pink flower.

6. Take the opportunity now to improve the black & white part of the photo by clicking on the Contrast + a few times. This makes the the whites whiter and blacks blacker rather than having everything tending being shades of gray.

7. Press esc or the select/unselect button  to remove the selection lines and your finished!

Style 2. Creating focal BW with a glow of colour or soft circular coloured focal area.

The second style of Focal BW is a soft warm gradual glow of colour over a particular highlighted feature rather than having distinct sharp change of colour like that of the first method. This method is a little more complex to apply in Photofiltre and the underlying principle is to create a fuzzy mask to allow the colour to shine through onto the BW background. Letz do it!

1. Open up the photo…

2. Make a duplicate copy of the original by going: Image >Duplicate

3. Convert one of the photos to grayscale by clicking on Grayscale

4. Use the Ellipse Tool to draw a circle over the face. This is going to be the basis of the colour mask.

5. Right mouse click and choose Stroke and Fill from the menu…opening up the dialogue box…

6. Tick the Fill box and select black for the colour.

7. Next step is to Right mouse click again(with pointer on the black part) and select Invert Selection.

8. Again, right mouse click and select CLEAR. This will make all of the background white, leaving only the black circular mask.

9. Remove selection lines by pressing esc key or pressing unselect/reselect button .

10. Apply Gaussian Blur at maximum setting. Filter>Visual Effect>Gaussian Blur. (May take a little while)

Ok. That’s how to make the photomask that will let the colour shine through onto the BW photo. The next step is to link the photomask with the original photo. If you like, you can save the mask and rename it, but I find it’s easier to copy it and then UNDO  a few times back to the original photo.

11. Copy the mask. Either right mouse click and select COPY, or from the menu Edit>COPY

12. Click on the undo button  several times to get back to the original pic.

13. The mask needs to be merged with the original photo to make one big picture. Do this by going to Edit>Paste Special>Assemble

14. Click Right and then OK.

15. Now COPY this combined original photo and mask by either right mouse click and then selecting COPY or on main menu Edit>Copy.

16. OK. Now go back to the BW photo you created earlier on…

17. Apply the colour mask to this so the coloured part shines through. Do this by going to: Edit>Paste Special>Image with linked mask.

18. Right mouse click and select VALIDATE

 That’s it…DONE!

So that’s how Focal BW effect is done on Photofiltre.

Whether you love it or hate it, graffiti and tags is here to stay. They is part of da urban landscapes. (!) You see it on bus shelters, billboard road signs, walls of construction sites, subways, back alleys, abandoned buildings, buses and trains. Graffiti represents another side or a type underground culture that is outside the normal stream of graphic design. But one interesting aspect of graffiti is the many styles of typeface graffiti artists use in their work. And with that aspect, I present readers with a selection of 22 free graffiti fonts I consider worth using for future projects. All of these are sourced from dafont.com as they had the most comprehensive selection of graffiti fonts available… and are of course free to download from their website.

If you want to know how to install more fonts under Windows be sure to check my blog post on the subject here.

Abuse

 Amsterdam Graffiti

Aerosol Menace

 Aerosol

Be Aggressive

El&Font Block

Fatboy Slim

Graffonti

Grand Stylus

Janis

Judas

Juice

Jungle Life

Raslani Hip Hop

Reskagraf

Slammer Tag

Tribal

To Be Continued

Urban Scrawl

Whoa!

Writers

Xanax

If you’ve been wondering how to put stars onto your pictures or text using Photofiltre, then your prayers have been answered. Thankfully Photofiltre’s Photomasque function(Filter –> Photomasque) makes this job very easy and with excellent results.

Where are Photomasques in Photofiltre?

If you’re not familiar with the Photomasque function then take a look under the Filter menu..then Photomasque.

Find the Photomasque function here.

There are quite a few different masks available in the standard set which are included when you install Photofiltre. Included are various designs and styles of border,edging and frames, which look nice but in my opinion are not really that interesting or useful to the needs of many Photofiltre users…sigh.

Photofiltre masks. Many border and edges to choose from…in french.

Plenty of borders and edges, but dude, where are the stars????

The free version of Photofiltre (version 6.x.x) does not include the stars in the standard set of of masks. However, star masks are included in Photofiltre Studio 30 day trial which can be downloaded from the Photofiltre website and the big news is that masks from PFStudio are compatible with the free version of Photofiltre… which means you can simply download and install Photofiltre Studio and use the masks from that version. YAY!

Download Photofiltre Studio

Once you’ve installed Photofiltre Studio you’ll have two versions of Photofiltre-: Photofiltre Free and Photofiltre Studio (30 day trial).

Photofiltre Studio star masks. Here are the star masks you want in the Photofiltre Studio directory.

To use the star masks, open up the Photomasque tool and then select the Photofiltre Studio masks directory as your source of masks.

C:\Program Files\PhotoFiltre Studio\Masks

An easier way to get star masks…

If you don’t want to goto the trouble of downloading and installing Photofiltre Studio, then download the four star masks I’ve made available here:

starmasks.zip

Unzip these four files to your Photofiltre masks directory. (C:\Program Files\PhotoFiltre\Masks)

The four new star masks.

How to insert stars using the Photomasque

With the star masks installed, we can now get down to the serious business of putting stars into images.

1. Positioning the star

Select the rectangle tool and hold down the shift key(to make a perfect square) and draw a square over the position you want place the star. Use the pointer in the centre of the square to get the position exactly where you want.

Photo credit: Daddy Woofer

The size of the square determines the star size, so big square=big star, little square=little star. You’ll probably have to experiment with the square size a little to get it just right. The undo button is your friend in this case. Alter the square size by grabbing the corner of the square whilst keeping the shift key pressed down. You can also right mouse click and select Manual Settings to set the box size. Try something like 75 x 75px to start off with.

2. Open up the Photomasque tool

Menu: Filter >> Photomasque

3. Select the style of star.

There are four styles of star to choose from, you can preview each of them in the mask selection box.

 Choose your star style…

4. Preview and click OK

After, you’ve chosen the star mask, click on Preview to see how the finished result looks like…and when your satisfied, click OK.

A star is born!

If you want to create more stars, move the selection square around to a new position, resizing the square as required(the larger the square the larger the star etc).

Use Filter >> Repeat Photomasque(or ctrl-k) to repeat adding more stars.

Extra Bling.

Add stars to text.

Adding stars to text is another great way to enhance the look of text. The procedure is exactly the same, use the square to position the star and adjust box size to adjust star size. I’d recommend adding stars at the edges of the text, and use stars sparingly as too many stars may tend to look weird. The white stars look particularly effective on a black background. Generally, choose white as the colour for the stars, but with some text it’s well worth experimenting with other colours, such as yellow, shades of light blue or even a light pink.

“Alberta” Created with Elephant font. On the Text Tool effects tabs I used drop shadow(white) and selected outer bevel. Reflection was created and then the stars added last.

Coloured stars.

Hope this helps Photofiltre users. Cheers…Jeffagogo.

Related Post: How to create reflective text with Photofiltre.