Page 387 - Xara Web Designer Premium

The Photo Tools 387

Hue

The HUE slider lets you choose
the color to apply and the
STRENGTH slider sets the
intensity of the color change
applied.

Blur/Sharpen

This control blurs images if the slider is dragged to a value below 0, and sharpens
images when dragged above 0. For sharpen it's recommended that only small values be
used, and typically only on images that have been reduced in size a lot. You can enter
blur values larger than the -100 maximum value available on the slider. E.g. entering -
400 will produce a very blurred image.

Using masks or regions

If you want to just enhance a particular area of your photo, first use one of the Photo
Region tools (on page 296) to mark the region of the photo you want to modify. Or use a
Mask tool to protect parts of the photo you don’t want modified.

Then switch to the Enhance Tool and make your changes. The mask or region is used to
limit the parts of the photo the enhance operation is applied to and afterwards you are left
with a region inside the Photo Group. Whenever this region is selected inside the Photo
Group, its outline is shown with "marching ants". To select such a region inside a Photo
Group, Ctrl+click on it or select it from the Page and Layer gallery (on page 444) where it
will appear as a Region within a Photo Group (on page 354). Looking at the Status line
(on page 68) will also clearly show you when you have a region or mask selected inside
a Photo Group.
Note that you should almost always apply feathering to a region inside a Photo Group, to
soften its edges and blend the enhance effect seamlessly into the photo. Hard-edged
regions are rarely useful. See the Feather tool for details. You can apply and adjust the