Editing images with the Fotoware plugin

Checking out a picture for editing

Select the picture in the grid and choose Edit on the action bar. Depending on your choice of web browser, you may have to click on the .fwc file downloaded when you execute the command.

Setting image size

By clicking on the Size button on the toolbar, you can change the document size and the physical size of the image. To only change the document size, often referred to as the file’s print size, make sure that the Resample image option is not selected. Then, enter new values in the Document size fields. Note that the Width and Height values are interrelated to preserve the proportions of the original image.

To change the pixel size of the image, you must first enable image resampling by selecting the Resample image checkbox. This will allow you to change the values in the Pixel dimensions field, namely Width, Height, and/or File size. Note that even when resampling images, the width and height values are relative to each other to retain the original width/height ratio of the image. Hence, changing the value in either the Height or Width field will change the value in the other field correspondingly.

Adding metadata to the Image

Select Metadata to open the metadata editor and add information to the image. The editor used is the same as the one associated with the archive from which the file was checked out.

Adjusting curves

Select Curves on the toolbar to open the Curves dialog. Essentially, both Curves and Levels can be used to adjust the image contrast and set black-and-white points; which method you choose is largely a matter of preference. The X-axis in the Curves diagram represents a range of image brightness from black to white, while the Y-axis shows how bright the corresponding pixel in the X-axis will be in the resulting image. To adjust the black point in the image, click and drag the dot in the lower left corner along to the right, leaving its Y-axis value unchanged. Similarly, you can set the image white point by dragging the dot in the upper right corner to the left along the X axis without changing its output value along the Y axis. You can click anywhere along the diagonal line and drag it to change the mapping of pixel values, or you can enter an input value and its corresponding output mapping. By default, the Curves dialog displays the Master color channel, letting you adjust the overall image levels, but you can choose the red, green, or blue color channel from the drop-down list for individual adjustment. To remove a point on the curve, click it and then drag it outside the Curves dialog. If you are used to working with CMYK values where zero corresponds to white, you can toggle the white/black setting by clicking on the gradient grayscale bar along the X-axis.

By clicking on the white and black arrows in the middle of the gradient field along the X-axis you can reverse the black/white point on the scale. Also, the Curves dialog has four buttons:

Reset: Resets the adjustments that you have made to curves.

Load: load a predefined curve file from a file.

Save: Save the current curve settings to a file.

Predefined: Click this button to choose from four predefined curve settings.

Adjusting image levels

To adjust image levels, click on the Levels button on the toolbar. This will bring up the Levels dialog. By choosing a color channel (or Master for all channels combined) and dragging the sliders, you can adjust the image levels in the shadows, mid-tones, and highlights. You can also enter the values in the text fields above the histogram. To automatically adjust levels, select Auto. You can now perform automatic level adjustment with or without color balance preservation. If you choose not to preserve the color balance, the levels for all three color channels will be adjusted individually, whereas choosing color balance preservation will adjust the combined. Note that choosing Auto levels from the Image menu adjusts levels without preserving the color balance.

Adjusting colors

Select Color Adjustment button to open the color adjustment palette. You can use this palette to change the colors of the entire image or a selection that you have drawn using the Lasso tool. Use the top (gray) bar to adjust the image's overall color balance. Select one of the five gray buttons to adjust the balance of shadows, mid-tones, and highlights in five levels. The three other rows are useful for removing the color cast and adjusting the red, green, and blue levels. To adjust, press and hold your mouse button on one of the five sliders on the appropriate row. The popup scale will indicate the color and contrast change when moving the slider.

Adjusting hue and saturation

Click on the Hue & Saturation button on the toolbar. A separate dialog will let you adjust the hue, color saturation, and luminance level of the image. These values can be adjusted for the Master channel, or you can pick a color channel using the dropdown list to adjust it individually.

Using the digital flash

The digital flash can be applied by clicking on the Digital Flash button on the toolbar, by clicking on the Digital Flash button in the Levels dialog (Click the Levels button on the toolbar to bring it up) or by applying it in an image action (see below).

The digital flash feature equalizes image levels to make shadows brighter and reduce the brightness of highlights. There are three different ways to apply the digital flash function slightly differently: When using the Digital Flash button on the toolbar in the image editor, you can apply three levels of flash – Strong, Normal, or Weak. This button divides the image into four equally large fields, and flash is applied to each area separately. If you want greater control of the flash, use the Digital Flash button in the Levels dialog or set up an image action (see below). That way, you can also choose the intensity of the application of flash as well as the number of fields the image should be split into before applying the flash. For images with great contrasts between highlight and shadows, it is usually a good idea to divide the image into many fields when applying the flash, even though this will require slightly more time for processing.

Using the Pixelate tool

By selecting and choosing the Pixelate tool, you can blur details in the picture you want to obscure. It may, for instance, be used to remove sensitive information from a picture. Using the little, You can choose from three levels of pixelation, three levels of blurring, and three different color masks that will make the selected part of the image unintelligible.

Adjusting contrast using SmartContrast™

In addition to adjusting levels or curves to improve image contrast, a special filter called SmartContrast combines several techniques to produce the best possible result. The filter has no settings; it can be applied by clicking on the little arrow on the Image Edit Actions button (the one next to the Metadata button) and choosing SmartContrast™.

Adjusting image sharpness with SmartSharp™

There is also a special filter for improving image sharpness. The SmartSharp™ filter can be applied by selecting the arrow on the Image Edit Actions button and choosing SmartSharp™. Essentially, SmartSharp™ analyzes the image to determine whether sharpening is necessary. By creating a custom image action, you can configure the filter so control when sharpening is applied and the amount of sharpening that is applied. (See Image Edit Actions below for more info.)

Red-eye reduction

To remove red eyes in an image, use the lasso tool to make the selection, then click on the Fix red-eye button to have FotoWeb Desktop apply its automatic red-eye reduction filter.

Rotating images

Images can be rotated in steps of 90 degrees using the green buttons to the right on the toolbar. The rightmost rotation button is used to rotate the image 180 degrees. Remember that selections made using the crop tool can be rotated freely by placing the pointer outside the crop frame and clicking and dragging the mouse to rotate the crop frame.

The Tools on the Toolbar