Effect tools

  Tilt-shift Effect

This tool is most often used to make a scene look like it contains a miniature photographed under a macro lens. There are also many other uses for tilt-shift, for example achieving low depth of field just like one could using an actual tilt-shift lens.

Use the guidelines shown over the picture to set which parts of the picture will be sharp, and which blurred. Click and drag in the picture to set the position and angle of the horizon line. This line defines the center of the area that will be in focus. To quickly set up and position a level horizon line, just click where it should be. To change the position or angle later, click and drag the whole line (position) or move the guidelines (angle). The shorter lines that run parallel to the horizon line set the breadth of the area that is in focus and the width of the transition between the focused and blurred parts of the image. To reposition these lines, click and drag them or set their positions numerically using the controls in the side panel (enter them as a percent of the image’s overall dimensions).

If the picture contains light sources, then to get the most faithful simulation of bokeh, that is, of areas outside the depth of focus, blur these light sources as needed. To do this, use the settings named Reflection threshold and Reflection intensity. When using tilt-shift to make objects look like miniatures, you can make the effect more lifelike using the controls named Brightening and Saturation.

Use the High Quality option to maximize the fidelity of the blurry areas, at the cost of slowing down calculations.

More Information

Make It Miniature With the Tilt-shift Effect

Lens Flare

This filter simulates sunlight hitting the lens at the moment a picture is taken. This often happens when a picture is taken against the light. This filter is most useful for emphasizing the existing lens flare in this kind of shot.

Click in the picture to set the point where the light source is “hitting” the imaginary lens. The various elements of this effect cross through the center of the picture. You can configure their size, color, and intensity.

  • Size sets the size of the effect’s visual elements. The best size to use depends on the picture’s resolution.
  • Hue changes the effect’s tinting within the available spectrum.
  • Saturation sets the intensity of the colors for all of the elements shown.
  • Lightness sets how strongly the flare is emphasized in the picture.

Use the settings from Light spikes through Additional halos to set which flare elements are shown.

More Information

How to Add a Lens Flare to Your Photos (And Why to Avoid It)

Morphing Mesh

Use the Morphing Mesh to distort a picture, or to straighten out an already distorted picture.

Click Create Mesh to place the morphing mesh atop your picture. The mesh is represented as a grid of dots; move the dots to adjust the mesh. The picture under the mesh “liquefies” and reacts to deformations of the mesh. To add a point (a node) to the mesh, double-click on the place to add the point. To remove a point and its associated lines, select it and click Remove Point in the Side Panel. Use the Remove Mesh button in the same place to remove the mesh. However, this only removes the mesh, not the deformation that it caused.