The FX2 tab sheet offers even more effects for enhancing the look of the image. There are diffusion, glow, vignette, paper, grain and frame effects.
Click on the sub tab bar at the top of the tab sheet to switch between different control groups. The arrow-down button displays a menu with various presets that activate the effects on the selected sub tab. So depending on the selected sub tab a different menu is displayed.
The Diffusion sub tab produces diffusion and blur effects that are either applied to the whole image or as a gradient.
The Intensity slider activates and adjusts the strength of the diffusion effect. The higher its value, the stronger the image diffusion will be. The Radius slider controls the width of the diffusion effect. Higher values produce a softer effect. The Opacity slider determines how much of the original image is visible. Lower values let more of the image shine through and improve the contrast whereas higher values hide the image behind the diffusion and fade the image details. The Brightness and Contrast sliders adjust the brightness and contrast of the diffusion effect.
If you want to apply the diffusion to the whole image you should select "None" in the Gradient combo box. Otherwise you can choose between a linear, linear middle and circular gradient. The Linear Middle option applies the diffusion to the middle of the image and fades it out to the top and the bottom. With the Invert check box activated this option can be used to simulate a shift lens. The Invert check box makes the gradient cover the parts of the image that it did not cover before. A linear gradient then runs from bottom to top instead of top to bottom and a circular gradient covers the center of the image instead of the corners.
The Offset slider shrinks or expands the linear diffusion gradient and moves it towards the top or bottom of the image thus making it cover more of the image. If you apply a circular gradient the same slider will be called Size and move the circular gradient towards the corners of the image. The Density slider controls the softness of the gradient edge. A low slider value will produce a hard edge between the unmodified image areas and the gradient and a high value will result in a soft transition. For the circular gradient you have an additional Elliptical slider, which transforms the gradient from a circle to an ellipse. Finally, the Rotation slider rotates the gradient. It has no effect on circular gradients, only on linear and elliptical ones.
Activate the cross icon and then click with it on the preview to relocate the center of the diffusion gradient. For more information see the Tools & Reset page.
The Halo sub tab offers two effects that cover some parts of the image with a color layer with soft borders.
Glow
The Glow effect makes certain image areas glow with a certain color. This color is white by default, but you can also change it by clicking in the color box. The Intensity slider activates and adjusts the strength of the glow effect. The Radius slider influences the border softness of the glow area. The Exposure slider decreases or increases the brightness of the glow effect. Too high values may blow out highlight details.
The Limit slider determines how large the glow effect is and how much of the image it covers. Larger slider values increase the size of the glow effect. The Tone slider defines the brightness of the image pixels that will be covered by the glow effect. If you want to apply the glow effect to bright image areas, use a high slider value. For covering dark image areas, choose a low slider value. Basically the Limit slider defines the brightness range that the effect covers whereas the Tone slider defines the center of that range.
Activate the eyedropper icon and click on the preview to select a value for the Tone slider. Hold down the mouse button and drag the mouse to change the value of the Limit slider interactively. For more information see the Tools & Reset page.
Vignette
The Vignette effect covers the corner areas of the image with a color. If the Invert check box is activated, the center of the image is covered instead. The Intensity slider activates and adjusts the opacity of the vignette effect. The Size slider moves the vignette more towards the corners of the image. The Density slider controls the softness of the vignette edge. A low slider value will produce a hard edge between the unmodified image areas and the vignette and a high value will result in a soft transition. The Shape slider gradually chanages the shape of the vignette. At a value of -100 it is circular, at zero it is elliptical and at 100 it is a rounded rectangle. Finally, the Rotation slider rotates the vignette, which only works if the vignette is elliptical.
Activate the cross icon and click with it on the preview to relocate the center of the vignette. For more information see the Tools & Reset page.
Paper
The Paper effect increases the local contrast of the image pixels, which simulates printing on more glossy paper. The Intensity slider activates the effect and amplifies it. The Gloss slider controls how wide the spreading of the effect is. Lower slider values reveal more details in the image. The Highlights slider removes the effect from the highlight areas of the image. This avoids blown out details in the highlights.
Grain
The grain controls add gray or colored grain particles to the image in order to simulate the grain of a photographic film.
The Intensity slider controls the intensity of the grain. Low values let the grain vanish and higher values make it more visible. The Size slider defines the size of the grain particles. The value represents the radius of the grain particle. A radius value of 1.0 means that the particle is 2 pixel in diameter. A value of 4.0 creates grain particles that are quite big and obtrusive. The Color slider colorizes the grain particle. At a value of zero you will only see gray grain particles and at a value of 100 you get multicolored grain particles.
Clicking the Rand button changes the internal random values that are used to render the grain. This changes the grain distribution slightly.
The Shadow, Midtone and Highlight sliders let you increase or decrease the intensity of the grain effect in the shadow, midtone and highlight areas of the image independently. Setting them all to -100 totally removes the grain.
The Frame effect adds rectangular or square frames around the image. The frame is placed inside the image, so it hides a part of it.
The Frame consists of three elements: outside, middle border and inside. The Outside slider sets the size of the outer frame part, the Border slider adjusts the size of the second frame element and the Inside slider increases or decreases the size of the inner frame part. If you set one of these sliders to zero, the corresponding frame element disappears.
The Intensity slider makes the frame transparent and lets the image underneath shine through. At a slider value of zero the frame vanishes. The top color box shows the color of the outside and inside elements. The bottom color box indicates the color of the border element. Click on them to choose another color. The Border Only check box makes the inside and outside of the frame disappear while the border element is still visible.
The remaining controls influence the edge curve of each border element. If you want a perfectly straight and rectangular frame you should choose the None option for the Edge combo box. The other options offer various patterns for adding a curve to the frame elements. The Outer Edge slider increases the curvature of the line between the outside and border frame element. The Middle Edge slider increases the curvature of the line between the border and inside frame element. Finally, the The Inner Edge slider increases the curvature between the inside frame element and the image.
The Size slider controls the amplitude of the edge curves. Low values produce smaller curve details whereas large values result in large details. The Roundness slider smoothes the curve details. At higher values the details get larger and smaller ones are suppressed. This slider can also be used to make the corners of the frame elements round. The Softness slider defines the softness of the edge curve. A slider value of -100 pixelates the edge and values between -99 and zero make it sharper. Values above zero make the edge softer.
If you selected the Random option in the Edge combo box, you also find a Rand button and an edit box at the bottom of the tab sheet. The edit box contains the value that is used for the randomness of the edge curve. Other values produce a different edge curve. You can manually enter values between -999,999 and 999,999. This makes almost two million different curve variations possible. Clicking the Rand button produces a new random value and places it in the edit box.
The Frame Width label at the bottom estimates the size of the frame in pixels. You can use this value to enlarge the image canvas to avoid that the frame hides a part of the image. For example, if the frame width is 150 pixels you need to enlarge the width and height of the image canvas by 300 pixels before you apply ColorStyler.