Connie March 17th, 2008

It seems that applying metallic effects has become popular. I’m going to show how to apply it to the water in the photo below. This tutorial will work for ACDSee 10 or ACDSee Pro 2.

1. Select the image; Under Edit Image choose Edit Mode

2. The first thing that I’m going to do is use Selections to select the water which is the only part of the photo I want to apply the metallic effects to.

Click on Selections. Draw around the water, then click on Done.

3. Select ‘Effects’    Scroll down & double click on Sheet Metal

4. Now the metallic effect has been applied. There are a number options to adjust.

I adjusted the rounding. Mousing over the colors shows them.  Lessening the opacity makes the metallic effect less intense.

final image

original image

Let me know what you’d like to see a tutorial on.

Popularity: 41% [?]

• ACDSee 10 , ACDSee Pro 2 , Photo Editing
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Connie February 24th, 2008

I always enjoy questions for how to do something. It means that I get to write a tutorial! Someone asked in ACDSee Product Forums if it was possible to erase the tongue on this tiger. The forums are very active & a great place to ask questions!

These instructions will work in both ACDSee Pro 2 and ACDSee 10.

1. In ACDSee double click on the thumbnail. Under Edit Image (the pain palette icon), choose Edit Mode

2. Choose Photo Repair on the left.

3. Plan what you want to remove & what color that you’re going to replace it with.

My plan is to use:

a. the Clone tool to make the inside part of the mouth black

b. the Heal tool to replace the chin where the tongue hangs over it

4. First we’ll choose the Clone tool & make the nib (like a pen tip) a higher number so we can cover more area quickly. And we’re going to reduce the feathering.

Next I selected the color black in the photo by right clicking on it (step 2 in the diagram)

Then I brush in small strokes. The Undo button is your friend here (bottom left). Use it when you need to!

5. To work around the front teeth, zoom in using the slider on the top right.

This will allow you to carefully move your nib close to the teeth without removing them.

And I drew a line across where I will add back the chin.

6. My next step was to clone across the chin.

7. They are really circles now & I’ll use the Heal tool & increase the feathering to blend them together to look more natural.

8. The last step is to use the Clone tool to remove the tip of the tongue and then use the Heal tool.

I made sure to choose the dark color fur around the chin and also some whiskers for a natural look.

9. Click on Done. And the finished photo looks pretty good!

If you’re wondering how to do something creative in an ACDSee product, please let me know.

Popularity: 61% [?]

• ACDSee 10 , ACDSee Pro 2 , Photo Editing
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Connie December 9th, 2007

ACDSee Pro 2 & ACDSee 10 can be used to add a white or black border to a photo. If you’d like to get creative & nest the borders, that is possible too. This tutorial shows how to change the color of the border also.

Special thanks to JD for explaining how to do this! I just added the steps here.

This would be much easier in ACDSee Photo Editor. (If you’d like to a tutorial for that, let me know).

1. Click on the thumbnail of the photo that you’d like to put a frame around.

2. Under the Palette icon, Choose Edit Mode

3. Click on Selections on left & the window below opens.

4. Click on Marquee. Make the inside selection. Try to keep it even all around.

5. If you need to do it again, click on Clear & redo it. When satisfied, click on Invert.

6. Click on Done (on bottom left).

7. Click on Exposure.

8a. To make a black border, click on the top right & drag it down the right side to bottom.

8b. To make a white or colored border:

Click on the top right of the line & drag it to the left along the top as shown.

9. Click on Done.

10. On left side, choose Color

11. Under the RGB tab, move the sliders to adjust the color of the border.

12. Click on Done.

Now repeat from Step 3 on to create a black border.

(You can add as many borders as you’d like, just work towards outside.)

When you get to Step 8 use 8a.

Click Done. Click on Finished.

Close window on top right & Save as new file to protect original.

If you use this tutorial, please link to your creative work! I’d love to see it.

Popularity: 85% [?]

• ACDSee 10 , ACDSee Pro 2 , ACDSee Tutorials
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Marco November 18th, 2007

Did you know it is possible to manage and or create/mix videos using ACDSee pro2?

As a parent who loves taking pictures and videos of my kid at soccer or hockey games, now that digital cameras are able to produce better quality videos, I found ACDSee has made it more fun to record a game and post to a video hosting site for my parents to enjoy overseas.

One of the challenges I faced with out ACDSee was that although it was very easy to create a single video with all my many shots from a game, I had a really hard time deciding which ones to keep and which ones made it to the final cut.

Sure, you can use the tools your Operating system provides for creating videos, but I was already very comfortable and used to working with ACDSee.

This is my very first post to a blog, so bare with me and I hope it helps you with your own workflow to make and manage your own videos.

Preparing ACDSee Pro 2 for action:

If you installed ACDSee Pro 2 with the standard default settings, you will already have ACDSee associated with multimedia files and whenever you select a multimedia file your preview pane in the ACDSee’s browser will display your video ready for playback.

I found this takes away from performance for what I needed to do, so I disabled the preview and added more details to my file list pane.

Then I opted for creating an entirely new workspace that allowed me to only see what I wanted my layout to display for dealing with videos. You are able to save as many layouts as you want with ACDSee and go back to the original layout using the workspace feature from the View menu.

Once you create the workspace, you can select what details are shown in the file list pane. I chose Filename, Size, modified date and length as the main items to keep in my file list pane as these are important to the final file size on my video. Some sites allow files more than 10 minutes in length and 100 MB In size, but others limit your choices.

That is where the length and size columns really came handy.

Working with QuickTime to make your videos

If you have QuickTime Pro, it is really easy to then decide what videos to piece together as you are able to drag and drop from ACDSee to QuickTime Pro and save these files as a single .mov file or export it to a different video format ready to upload to a video hosting site.

Here you can see the duration of the video and decide how long you want the video to be. If you want to add another video, all you have to do is drag and drop from the ACDSee file list pane to the last video in your sequence.

Working with the ACDSee feature: Create Video or VCD

If you don’t have QuickTime, no need to worry. ACDSee also comes with the tools you need to get your videos ready for the web.

you can read more about the Create Video or VCD feature on the ACDSee help file, but here are a couple of steps to get you started:

• Select your videos from the file list and click on the Create menu; there you will see the Create Video or VCD feature.

From here you select the Video option.

• Now you will see the length of time that your selected videos will include. You can always add or remove videos from your list using the Edit show feature. Notice how mine is only just over 4 minutes.

• The Create Video feature in ACDSee will also help you resize your video so that it is optimal for distribution on the web (320×240 at Frame rate of 30fps). You can choose these and your preferred encoding format once you choose the next button.

You are now ready to prepare your camera made videos of your kids favourite activities using ACDSee Pro 2.

Popularity: 66% [?]

• ACDSee Pro 2 , ACDSee Tutorials , Workflow
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Connie November 13th, 2007

Selective coloring in ACDSee is SO easy now! Before ACDSee 10 in order to achieve this I had to use masks in ACDSee Photo Editor.

This can be done in both ACDSee 10 & ACDSee Pro 2!

• Open your photo in ACDSee by double clicking on the thumbnail.
• Use the pull down menu on the Palette Icon & choose Edit Mode

A new pane opens on the left

• Click on Selections
• With Freehand Lasso tool selected, draw around the item
• stay fairly close, but it doesn’t have to be exact.
• when you get back to where you started the selection will be made
• Click on Invert, Click on Done if you’re satisfied with your selection

Click on the Color - in the left pane & this is when the magic happens!

• Move the Saturation slider to the left to desaturate the background

To make up for the area around the image, on the top

• Move the slider for the Feathering to the right.
• Decide what looks the most natural.
• Click on Done

This will bring you back to the Main Menu of the Edit Panel

• Click on Finished Editing at the bottom
• And your photo is finished!

Popularity: 94% [?]

• ACDSee 10 , ACDSee Pro 2 , ACDSee Tutorials
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Connie November 10th, 2007

I’ve written a lot of tutorials, so I always appreciate those made by others. JD generously posted a link to his tutorial on Creating Vignettes with ACDSee. He  posts under the username ‘TherealJD’ in the ACDSee Product Forums.

On his blog, CadGFX, JD says:

Acdsee is an excellent image manager. And for quick photo editing, it’s an excellent tool. Pro 2 has added a selection tool to apply various effects to only selected portions of an image. I will be using this new feature to create some custom vignettes for an image.

In his tutorial, Better Vignettes with ACDSee Pro 2, step by step instructions are provided to create this custom vignette (the tutorial will also work in ACDSee 10).

If you’re not familiar with ACDSee Pro 2 or ACDSee 10, here are instructions for opening the editor.

And here’s a screenshot of the features that JD used:

If you’ve created tutorials using ACDSee products or are interested in writing some, please let me know at cbensen@acdsee.com  The blog is a great way to share them.

Other tutorials that you may be interested in

Before & after photo

Shadows and Highlights Tool in ACDSee Pro 2

ACDSee rescues lost photos

Popularity: 67% [?]

• ACDSee Pro 2 , ACDSee Tutorials , Photo Editing
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Connie November 7th, 2007

Here’s a quick tutorial for opening the Advanced Editing mode.

You’ll find it in both ACDSee 10 & ACDSee Pro 2.

Under the palette icon’s pull down menu, choose Edit Mode

This opens a new pane on the left with the icons described. And now you have access to the Selections tool.

Popularity: 74% [?]

• ACDSee 10 , ACDSee Pro 2 , ACDSee Tutorials
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Connie October 24th, 2007

In my previous post I had included a photo of flower sculptures that I had lightened in ACDSee Pro 2.

Thomas requested to see the before & after photos. The Shadows & Highlights tools is my favorite one in ACDSee Pro 2, so I’d love to show how easy it is!

I took this photo early in the morning when it was rainy & on the darker side. It’s not a bad photo but it certainly wasn’t what I saw when I took it.

After opening ACDSee, double click on your image. Click on the icon for the Shadows/Highlights tool (mousing over it will identify it).

There are two options in ACDSee Pro 2. I’ve been using the sliders in the Light EQ tab. I start with the top set which lightens the photo. Then I use the bottom ones to adjust the darkness. Click on Done when you’re satisfied & save under a new name to preserve the original.

A quick crop of the photo & I have a much brighter version of the original.

You can see two other examples of the Shadows & Highlights tool used:

Cat photo (an amazing example)

ACDSee Rescues Lost Photos (Use of Advanced tab)

If you’d like to try ACDSee Pro 2 on your photos, a trial can be found here.

ACDSee Photo Manager 10 has a more general version of the tool.

Popularity: 70% [?]

• ACDSee Pro 2 , ACDSee Tutorials , Photo Editing
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Connie October 7th, 2007

Take a look at the slide show on the right under the About box. I’m going to show you how it easy it is to do.

You can create a Sendpix album in ACDSee Photo Manager 9, 10 or ACDSee Pro 2 to share your photos with family & friends. And it also creates an html code to create a slideshow on your blog or website.

Create an Album -> Next

Enter a name for your Album -> Next

Browse to your photos or layouts

select & add them

multiples can be added at once

Next -> Send (uploads your album)

An email will be sent to the email address you had given & there will be an html code in it.

You can copy & paste that into your blog to create a slideshow of your photos/pages. If your blog uses widgets then it’s really easy to create a text widget with the code. Please ask if you have questions on how to do that.

And link us to your slideshows - we’d love to see them.

Popularity: 79% [?]

• ACDSee 10 , ACDSee Pro 2 , ACDSee Tutorials , Photo Sharing
• Comments(2)

Connie October 3rd, 2007

Browse by date

* Browse and find photos intuitively on a virtual calendar with the new Photo Calendar option.

Here is a link to video to see it action:
Photo Calendar in Action

Popularity: 85% [?]

• ACDSee 10 , ACDSee Pro 2 , ACDSee Tutorials
• Comments(0)