Working with lenses

Lenses let you view special effects, corrections, or adjustments, on a separate object layer before you apply the changes to the image.

In this section, you’ll learn about

•creating lenses

•editing lenses

•combining lenses with the image background

Creating lenses

Lenses let you view adjustments and special effects that you want to apply to an image. When you create a lens, the changes you make are not applied to the image pixels; instead, they are displayed on the screen through the lens. The lens is created as a separate object on a layer above the image background so you can edit the lens and the background image separately.

You can create a lens to cover the entire image, or you can create a lens from the editable area of a mask. When you create a lens, you must choose a lens type based on the change that you want to apply. However, the types of lenses are determined by the image’s color mode. For example, you cannot use a color lens on a grayscale image because there are no colors to modify. If you want to correct or adjust image color and tone, choose a lens type that corresponds to the adjustment and transform filters. For more information about using filters, see “Adjusting color and tone” on page 387. If you want to apply a special effect to improve image quality or dramatically transform an image, choose a special effects filter. For more information about special effects, see “Applying special effects” on page 423.

The picture of the man is an image object cut out from a darker image. A lens was applied to brighten the image object without permanently changing the image object or background.

To create a lens

1Click Object ` Create ` New lens.

2Choose a lens from the Lens type list.

3Type a name in the Lens name box.

4Click OK.

If a dialog box displays, specify the lens properties.

To create a lens from an editable area

1Define an editable area.

2Click Object ` Create ` New lens.

3Enable the Create lens from mask check box.

4Choose a lens from the Lens type list.

5Type a name in the Lens name box.

6Click OK.

7In the dialog box, specify the lens properties.