Using Color to Create a Focus in Paint Shop Pro 9 or X

When doing photo and image manipulations in Paint Shop Pro there are often several different ways to achieve a certain effect. This tutorial will show one way to focus in on one aspect of an image by altering the colors in the image.

Open Paint Shop Pro, and then open any image (that you own, have permission to use, or is in the public domain) and decide which element you wish to focus on.

In the Layer Palette, right click on Background, and then click on Duplicate. With the Copy of Background Layer active, click on Adjust and go down to Hue and Saturation, then click on Colorize. The settings you use here will depend on what you want your end result to be. Change both the Hue and Saturation to 0 to make your focus appear out of a grayscale image. If the image is mostly shades of blue, you might want to adjust the settings to red. Play around with the settings until you are satisfied.

You can alter the colors further by also changing the Hue and Saturation of the Background layer as well. Again, try out different combinations until you find the settings that will work for what you are trying to achieve.

To expose the part of the image that you are focusing on, click on the Eraser Tool. Check that the Opacity and Density settings are both 100%. Start with a medium size, about 25-30, to erase the larger areas. Adjust the size smaller as needed to get the finer details. You might find it necessary to zoom in to make sure you erase everything in the part you want focused.

Alternately, you can use the Freehand Selection Tool, with the type as Point to Point and the mode as Add (Shift), to move carefully and closely around the edges of the image, clicking to add more points. Make sure you get the entire image without cutting anything out. Once you have the image selected, right click to end the selection. Then click on the Eraser Tool and use it on the selection. After you have deselected the image you will probably want to zoom in and erase any details you might have missed.

Once you have finished, save your image with a different name than the original so that you can use it again if you like.

This is just one method of manipulation to create a focus in an image. These steps are adaptable for Paint Shop Pro 9 and X, as well as previous versions, although in some versions the interface may have changed. Get creative with your images!