Assorted resources used on this experiment (yes, I've been playing with Daz Studio :) ) I found the photo edge tutorial here. If you don't have the Eye Candy 3.1 plugin, this site has a legal download.



Download: Photo Edge (mask)
Download: Picture Grunge JBR file (PSP 7; too lazy to make PSPX)
Download: Picture Grunge (brush image pack)
Download: Scratch Stuff (texture)

Paint Shop Pro users will probably find these more useful than Photoshop users, since a couple of them make up for regular PS features that can't be found in PSP:

GML Matting

"GML Matting is FREEWARE plugin for Adobe Photoshop and compatible applications. GML Matting is a cutout tool to help separate object from background. Interface of the plugin is similar to that of Photoshop Extract utility while the algorithm used usually produces better result. For Paint Shop Pro users it can become the essential matting plugin since Paint Shop Pro has no built-in matte extraction functionality."

I've seen price tags for similar plugins in the hundreds of dollars, but this one is free. So far, it works great!

( example inside... )

easy.Filter SmartCurve

"Photoshop Elements offers in opposite to its professional version no curves command. That's a pity, because curves are a valuable tool for image editing. To remedy this shortcoming this site offers the plugin SmartCurve to upgrade this ability. Of course this plugin can be used from all programs which can integrate Photoshop plugins."

I am not enamored of curves myself, much less so the trend toward neon-glow colors, but I played around with this plugin a little and it seems to work as advertised. The site offers a few "how-to" tips for curve newbies too.

LUCE

Basically another utility for adding interesting light effects to an image. There's a manual linked from the main download site.

VanDerLee's NightVision Plugin

"The NightVision plug-in can make any image like the ones from night vision goggles. By using the effects in this plug-in, you can make images look like they are from a black & white security camera or CCTV system. It's also possible to make them look like infra-red photos. Or you can just use the interlace to make an image look like a TV picture. You can even use it to enhance real night images!"

Okay...not terribly practical, but who knows when you might have a need for an image like that?

ULead Particle Plugin

Some weird and not too useful, but some of the effects look like mist, smoke, fire, and clouds. Eh, it's free...

Martin Koch's Halftones and Line Art

Some dithering and line art stuff here that's useful for pop art type of projects. Some of the plugins are free, others are not (but inexpensive.)

(( Plugin Post #1 • Plugin Post #2 ))

Most colorizing tutorials I run across usually involve lots of layers, lots of erasing, and lots of coloring manually with the airbrush tool (like, oh, the tutorial I did here; which I should revisit one of these days.) Sometimes all that complicated stuff is the only way to achieve a desired result, but if you just have small areas to colorize or tint, it's easier to put the Lasso Tool tool to work.

To boost an existing eye color, use the Lasso Tool to select the irises of each eye, then increase the saturation level. No layers, erasers, or paint brushes required. (edited to add, you can also use the Retouch Tool, which I always forget about; it's easier to use in PSP 7 than PSP X, imo)

To tint selected areas of an image, use the Lasso and then Colorize. In both of the images below (much reduced from the working files, btw) I used the Lasso to draw around and select the lips, then went into the Colorize menu: Hue=5 / Saturation=50. I did the same for the eyes, with Hue=145 and the same saturation. (I used a round airbrush set at Hardness=0 and Opacity=20, with the color #cd5c5c to color the cheeks.)



(The original images looked like this and this; both downloaded from a public domain archive.)

I know PSPX has a saturation brush tip in the retouch tool bar, but I can never get the results to look the way I want them to (maybe I'm doing something wrong?)

Yes, I went hunting around for filter plugins again. All sets but one are free downloads. I've only included one example per plugin site, but linked to a number of others (hopefully that way the dial-up users won't be pulling out their hair while waiting for the page to load.)

I use PSP 7 and PSP X, and all of these filters work in Paint Shop Pro as well as Photoshop. The only exception to this is Filter Forge, which does NOT work in PSP 7. However, it also functions as a stand-alone app, so that's not really an issue.

Original Image

Mehdi Filters

A whole bunch of freebies here, most of which aren't particularly useful, but I really like the Fine Threshold filter (and the end result also colorizes very nicely):

Photo-Plugins

Several filters here -- most of them pretty basic -- but one that's useful is the background gradient blur:

optikVerve Labs

They offer a freebie filter called virtualPhotographer, which does a bunch of stuff, among them effects like this one:



Other examples: Reminiscing || Spice || Slight Grain

Filter Forge

I had a fine time playing around with Filter Forge. This one, alas, is not free, although you can mess around with it for 30 days with no restrictions. The plugin filter library is incredible:



Example-O-Rama: Bullet Holes | Burninator | Chalk | Charcoal Drawing | Charred Pages | Comic Book | Comic Stylize | Forgotten Poster | Gouache | Grunge | Icicle Works | Ink and Paper | Manga Kata | Marbelizer | Old News | Unfolded Poster

Whew. There's many, many other effects and textures, so it was definitely worth the price tag imo.

Little Inkpot

I didn't keep these filters after downloading and trying them out -- once I bought Filter Forge, I knew I didn't need them -- but there's a couple of nice artsy freebie filters here.

(( Plugin Post #1 • Plugin Post #3 ))

Oh, yeah! I forgot to upload the last of the large-ish historical brushes. This one, like all the others, was made from a public domain scan from an old book. It's an early Anglo-Saxon alphabet. Not all of the letters of the modern alphabet are included, but most of them are.


Download: JBR/pspBrush/Image Pack

The preview is much reduced in size, but the detail on some of the letters is quite nice. ((and just corrected the zip url, sigh...i shouldn't try anything requiring my brain before i've had my first cup of coffee!))