Bought Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

I broke down and bought Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 today. Maybe I'll be an Ansel Adams or a computer artist tomorrow. Of course, Ive owned the last four versions and it hasn't happened yet.

Corel Announces Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Wow, well I was on hiatus from computing in general and blogging specifically, Corel snuck one in on me! Their newest version is entitled Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. Could they make the title any longer?

This version offers an 'Express Lab' where one can supposedly edit dozens of photos in the time it used to take to edit just a few, partially because you don't have to wait for each individual photo to open. The new interface has gone dark, which seems to be the current rage in software (at least photo software). An exciting new feature is the ability to create HDR images and I'm looking forward to trying this out. There are now, also, new styles for layering ( whatever this means) and the ability to create visible watermarks. There is a new make up tool called 'Thinify', which just seems silly to me and several other program enhancements.

I can't wait to download the trial version and start putting this new program to the test. Hey, I guess I'll do that now.

Swapping Heads with Paint Shop Pro

Swapping heads in photographs seems to be one of the favorite photo manipulations. This tutorial shows how easy the task can be using Paint Shop Pro. Start by opening both photos. Continue the process by using the Freehand Selection Tool, which is found under the Learning Centers Home page, picking Collage and then clicking Make Selections. Choose the Smart Edge option from the Tools Option Palette under selection type. Once your options are set, select the photo with the head you wish to use and you can begin tracing around the head. This should be done with several short selections. When the process is complete simply double click your mouse. Copy this selection to the clipboard by Pressing Ctrl + C, or choosing Edit Copy.

Now, make your receiving photo the active image (I chose an image of a couple of gay deputies from Sandstone County) and then press Ctrl + L, or choose Edit Paste As New Layer. From the Learning Center’s Home page, choose Collage, and then choose Move Collage Elements and the pick tool will be activated. Resize your head and rotate as necessary. Finally, move the head into it's final position and save your work.

Here, I have cropped the photo of the gay deputies from Sandstone County, so you could see the results better.

Fixing Red Eyes with Paint Shop Pro

Red eyes (or green eyes with animals) is a common problem in flash photography and can ruin an otherwise great photo. As always, this is best avoided before the shutter is released. Having missed the opportunity to eliminate the problem beforehand it's time to fire up Paint Shop Pro.

With Paint Shop Pro the problem is sometimes easy to solve. Here is a quick fix for getting rid of red eye. Sometimes this fix will not be totally successful. In this case, Paint Shop Pro has other tricks up it's sleeve for fixing your red eye problem. The more advanced features will not be covered here, but will be addressed in another post at some future date. For now, try this quick fix and see if it isn't enough to improve your photos.


To attempt a quick fix go to the Learning Center's Home page and click on Retouch and Restore and then on Fix Red Eyes (of course). Zoom in on the eyes in your photo and place the circular cursor over the red portion of one of the eyes. Increase the size of this circle, if need be, in the Tool Options palette. Click the mouse and hopefully your problem is gone. If not hit undo, increase the cursor size and try it again. Repeat this process with all discolored eyes. Remember, there are more advanced methods to experiment with if this quick procedure just doesn't do the trick.

Straighten with Paint Shop Pro

Here is a photo which is completely out of kilter. Usually not a good thing.

This is an easy fix with Paint Shop Pro. If we go to the Learning Center we can click on Adjust and then Straighten. A straighten tool will then appear which can be lined up with a straight edge, in your photo, with the mouse. You will have to make a judgment call if there is no straight edge to go by. When you have the line exactly where you want it simply double click anywhere within the image.

You may wind up with an image which appears to be simply rotated by hand, such as shown above. While this may be an effect you want, in which case you are done, it is highly unlikely.



To have the image straightened and cropped back to a standard rectangular format, follow the steps above. This time just be sure to check the box in the tools option menu marked 'Crop Image'. This will probably more to your liking. Just remember when using this method that some of your image will be cropped away, along the edges.

Email Photos with Paint Shop Pro

For a really, easy way to email your photos use Paint Shop Pro. Corel has a tutorial to show you how. No more sending oversize files that aggravate the recipient. No more guessing the optimum file size to send. Paint Shop Pro painlessly walks you through the process. Choose embedded or attachment, pick your size (three easy options, plus original or cell phone), and send them off to your chosen recipient.

Here, I chose to embed (nice option) the file. Optionally, I could have chosen to send the file as an attachment.

Even a Child Can Use Paint Shop Pro

I removed the background from this photo of my granddaughter.

Pretty awesome, huh?



Here is a drawing (her first ever) made by my granddaughter (shown above), in Paint Shop Pro. She drew it way back in March of '06. I wonder if she remembers it?

Removing Distractions from Your Photos

In this tutorial from Corel You learn how to remove unwanted items from your photographs, as the title implies. I decided to use their photo for this exercise. Removing unwanted objects was quite easy using the 'Object Remover Tool' found under the Retouch and Restore button. With this tool you simple drag the cursor around your unwanted object, while in the selection mode, and then select a replacement area, while in the source mode. The only caveat is that you should be very, careful when selecting your source area, so as to match the surrounding area you are eliminating as closely as possible. Take as many source samples as necessary to accomplish a maore natural end result.

In the edited photo you will notice the leash and the branch are both now gone. Perhaps it's time to get those distracting objects out of your photos.

The Paint Shop Pro Crop Tool

Although, the best cropping should usually be done 'in camera', it doesn't always work out the way it should. Sometimes we need a little help, after the fact. As stated in Corel's tutorial, cropping is the quickest and easiest way to improve the composition of your photos. Paint Shop Pro allows you to select from standard photo sizes or to go completely free form. You decide what works best for your usage.


I have used the crop tool, here, to remove distracting elements and to emphasize the important part of the photo. No more arms and torsos of headless people. Much better.

Corel's Smart Photo Fix

Here is a poorly exposed photograph. I have tried the 'Learn How to Fix Photos the Smart Way' tutorial at Corel's site, to see if it would improve the picture.


The tutorial is pretty straightforward and I simply used the default settings, here. My photo is much lighter and definitely better exposed, now. A superb improvement with only a click of the mouse (once you are at the right screen). If desired one could adjust the brightness manually via the shadows, highlight, and/or the overall sliders. One can, also, manually adjust the saturation and sharpness in this screen. Using the advanced settings, you could continue to improve the color balance of the photo and adjust the lighter and darker areas of your photo using black and white set points. For this example I used no advanced settings and simply used the ones suggested by the program.

In the past, I have often found the 'Smart Photo Fix' generally and the 'suggested settings' specifically to do a great job much of the time. Often, though, I found it is better to manually adjust your photo with Paint Shop Pro's more general tools. It would probably be a good practice to try the Smart Photo Fix first. If this does not do the job sufficiently, or as you envisioned, then try doing the corrections yourself.

Give A Makeover with Paint Shop Pro

I tried Corel's 'Give a Makeover - It's Easy! ' tutorial and found they were correct - it is easy. I used their photo, for the first time, as I didn't want to offend anyone I know.



This tutorial is like four mini tutorials in one. It has to do with making over a subject in a portrait or any photo with people, for that matter. It leads you through the 'Retouch and Restore' section where you then find the Makeover button. Clicking here, you are then able to use the Blemish Fixer (easy), the Toothbrush for whitening teeth (easy), the Skin Smoothing Tool (easy), and finally the Suntan Tool (moderately easy, depending on your photo).

Quick and easy (is this getting monotonous) fixes all, for any of the subjects that may need a little touch up. Give these tools a try.

Change Colors in an Instant

A new feature of Paint Shop Pro in version XI is the 'Color Changer'. Here I tried a tutorial for using that tool. I chose a photo which would make the color change both easy and noticeable. Above is my original photo of an exterior wall. Below is the new version with the brick half turned to bright red.

This tutorial was fun and again extremely easy to do. I do believe, however, that this would not always be the case. If your photo had less definition or contrast. Or many colors, shades, or hues then my guess would be that substantially more effort would be involved. I don't know this for sure but, will experiment further some day.

Add Depth of Field to Your Photos

Here, I followed the 'Add Depth of Field to Your Photos' Tutorial at the Corel website. I must say, at the onset, that I was very disappointed. While, I welcome all other additions to the newest version (PSPP XI), This one just doesn't make the grade. Ironically, this is the one feature I was most looking forward to. If you use the default settings with this tool it is quick and very, easy. If you don't use the defaults, it becomes tedious, time-consuming, and sometimes frustrating. And usually v...e...r...y..., v...e...r...y... slooooow! The problem is, that the default settings can seldom be used. To truly get this effect right it must be customized to your individual image. With that out of the way, there may be some rare times when this tool would be useful. During these moments it may be appreciated.

As far as the tutorial goes, it is quite straight forward. Open your image and then open the Depth of Field Dialog Box. You the select your area of focus. This is where it starts to get tricky and this tool needs some refinement, here. Once you get your area selected there are a couple of controls you may use to refine the area and the effect. You may set the amount of blur and you have a couple of choices in the shape of your aperture. Also, you may feather your edge for this effect and finally, you may adjust the size of your selection.


I wanted to emphasis the menu in this photo. Adjusting the depth of field allows me to do so by throwing the other elements out of focus. I used to do this sort of effect manually in older versions of Paint Shop Pro and was looking forward to an easier way. Sadly, the new method is not easier and can actually be slower and more frustrating. Give it a try and you decide. Maybe you will have a better experience than I.

Create Your Own Card

Another, quick and easy Paint Shop Pro tutorial. After choosing and adjusting your photo, this tutorial shows you how to make a greeting card from it. It uses Corel Snapfire to do this. I didn't do a greeting card, per say but rather a flat stock type card. I didn't put any extra effort into creating a glorious card. I just walked through the steps given and adjusted for MY photo and theme. The effects here could easily be done to enhance your photo without using Snapfire or creating a card.

In fact, what I liked had nothing to do with card making. The tutorial showed me an easier way to selectively hand color my photos. I've done this before, using other methods. but this was a much easier way to do this. Simple create a duplicate layer, convert it to black and white, then use the eraser tool to let the previous colors shine through. Ingenious.

Removing Photo Backgrounds

Following the instructions in the Corel tutorial, "Remove Photo Backgrounds with the Background Eraser", I removed the boy from the photo on the right and added him to the photo on the left.

This was another quick and easy tutorial for Paint Shop Pro. All I had to do was use the background eraser to eliminate all elements from the right photo except the boy. Then, I simply copy and pasted the boy from one photo to the other. I moved the boy around with the pick tool and saved the new photo when the result is what I wanted. Doesn't get much simpler than this folks.

Resulting image

Make Your Own Vignette Frame

Another extremely, quick and simple Paint Shop Pro tutorial. This one is for making your own vignette frames, as the title implies. I did this example on-the-fly and didn't take a lot of time with it. Ideally, I should have used a lighter shade of green and cropped a little differently but, this is quite good considering the meager time invested.

All you really need to do, to create this effect, is to select your image and a complementing background color. From there you make your selection with the 'shape selection tool', invert your selection and then delete. Now crop to suit and your done. I told you it was quick and easy. Give it a try.

Reversing Text on a Path

Here is a fun but, real simple text effect I did with Paint Shop Pro. I followed a tutorial from Corel's site entitled (surprise), 'Reverse Text on a Path'. A great and simple project, as I said. It only takes a few moments to create. A perfect effect if you need your text to do this sort of thing. Give it a try if you have Paint Shop or get the free trial if you have an interest. It's a great program that I can't rave enough about.

Ordered Paintshop Pro Photo XI

I ordered Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI tonight. I am out the door for work in just a couple of minutes, so playing with it will have to wait until my return.

Corel Acquires Intervideo and, Indirectly, Ulead

I'd seen the recent news reports of Corel's acquisition of Intervideo, but until I read Foster Coburn's blog post about it, I hadn't realized that Intervideo was the owner of Ulead Systems. That makes Corel the new owner of Ulead PhotoImpact and Ulead's other software which includes video editing, DVD authoring, digital scrapbooking, and other digital media titles. As Foster notes, Corel is now the owner of five different photo editing titles. It will be interesting to see what they do with the Ulead product line. I think many of PhotoImpact's easy-to-use photo editing tools and effects would be a great fit with Corel's brand-new Snapfire product.

from About.com

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI Arrives

I just received the news -

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI is out

I notice that Photo is now in the title. Could this be a good sign? I like all PSPro's features but, am mostly (and by far) interested in it's photographic usage. Maybe some new functional photo wizardry has been added. I hope so.

I am downloading the trial version at this moment and when I have time (which is not now) I will give it a test run. If anyone beats me to it let me know how it measures up.