Editing photos in the “Express Lab”

A new feature in “PSP X2” is the “Express lab”.
Using this, we can quickly edit photos individually without opening them in “PSP”.

To open this feature, click the “Express Lab” button at the top of the palette, “Organizer”.
You can select the folder in the folder pane of the palette, “Organizer”, or you can select the folder from the shortcut pane which has already been discussed earlier.

 

Once the lab is open we get the following window.
The first photo in the selected folder is displayed in the “Picture window”.

The first thing you do is to select the photo you want to edit from the bottom of the “Express lab”.
This will open the “Picture window” (A).
Under the “Picture window” we find the “Value setting” (B) for the selected picture.
We can find few buttons on the bar using which we can perform some operations on the selected picture.

 

Let me go through them.

The first two buttons are “Save” and “Save as” (1).
It is wise to store your pictures when you have performed several actions on them.
But it is wiser to save the photo with “Save as” option, because this way you always have the original available.

 

We also have the buttons “Undo” and “Redo” (2). The “Undo” button will reverse the changes made and the “Redo” button will perform the last undone operation again.

 

Then we have the “Normal view” button (3). When we click on this option the photo’s ‘normal size’ appears.

 

We also have the “Image Adjustment window” button (4). This displays the picture in maximum window size.

 

We also have the “Zoom” button (5). By clicking on the picture with this button we can zoom into the picture.

 

We then have the “Pan” button (6). With this button we can zoom in any portion of the picture in the window.

 

We also have the “Straighten” option (7). With this button we can straighten a crooked picture.We will discuss this in greater detail at a later period of time.

 

The next button is “Crop” (8) I will explain this in the next lesson.

 

Then we have the “Smart correction” button (9). When we click on it, a pane opens, on the right side of the lab. You can see this in the above picture.
Here you can edit the brightness and saturation of the photo manually. You’ll also find the “Suggest Settings” option.
When you click on these settings, your “PSP” will make a suggestion where all the different options are reset automatically.

If you accept them, click the “Save” or “Save As” button. If you want to ignore this click the “Reset” button.

 

We also have the “Make-over” tool (10). This we use when we want to edit images of people. For example, for teeth bleaching, tanning a face or highlighting some other part.

 

Then we have the “Clone Brush” (11). We can clone parts of an image in different positions.

 

We also have the “Red Eye” tool (12). This removes red eyes in the photo.

 

We also have the buttons “Rotate Left” and “Rotate Right” (13 and 14).
The “Delete” button (15), and the “Help topics” button come next (16).
I think they are very clear.

 

We click the “Close Express Lab” button in case we want to return to “PSP”.

When you have made changes to a photo and you select another photo, your “PSP” will always ask if you want to save these changes.
If you reply to this with ‘yes’, the next dialog box will ask you whether you want a copy of the original to be stored.
If you reply with ‘yes’ to this, a folder will be created in “PSP” (Corel Auto-Preserve), in the directory you’re working in, and the original will be stored here.

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