I Tutorial

In the three exercises of this tutorial you will learn how to use the main functions of PHOTOGENETICS. You may prefer just to read them and then start on your own or you may want to do the same exercises yourself using the example images delivered with the software. Either way you will learn by doing. There is no other way to learn to work with PHOTOGENETICS.

1. Evolving an image

In this chapter you will learn how to optimize an image using the central function of PHOTOGENETICS called image evolution. The name is taken from the revolutionary new technology PHOTOGENETICS is based upon: using evolutionary strategies and genetic algorithms for optimizing images. You don’t have to understand anything about it to learn to work with PHOTOGENETICS but if you are interested you will find some background information in the appendix of this manual.

Before we start with the real exercise we have to explain what "optimizing an image" means. If you are not a professional photographer you will very often be disappointed if you compare your photos (from conventional or digital cameras) with images you see in print (especially in ads). These photos are developed in a special way using special photographic development methods and they are reworked in the computer (after scanning) using professional image processing software. It takes a highly trained professional to make these images look that brilliant. Compared to these images most of your photos will look somewhat dull. Wouldn't you like to make your photos look as brilliant as those you see in print taken by professional photographers and reworked by professional lithographers?

That is exactly what PHOTOGENETICS is doing to your photos. You may think of PHOTOGENETICS as a kind of digital film development system combined with digital image processing. And the best of it is that you don’t have to understand anything about the technology to use it. In fact, all of that technology is hidden from you and you will never see anything of it while using PHOTOGENETICS. It takes a trained professional to achieve the same results using conventional image processing software. That sounds unbelievable but exactly that has been made possible by using evolutionary strategies and genetic algorithms.

There is one more important aspect to consider before we start with the real exercise. With conventional image processing software the user has to know in advance which results he wants to achieve. He has to imagine the result and then work hard to achieve this result, using a lot of rather complicated functions. With PHOTOGENETICS you don't have to imagine anything in advance! In fact, it is even better not to imagine anything in advance and let the evolution guide you. You don't know where it may lead you. And the final result will often be a surprise. There is no objective "best image". The best result is the one you like most. And now let's go to work.

If you start the program it comes up with the image browser. The browser is preset to the directory of PHOTOGENETICS. Choose one of the images shown as preview in the browser by double clicking the preview image. For this exercise we will use the image called "palmtrees.jpg".





The image is being loaded and you will see the main window of PHOTOGENETICS. You will see the image adapted to screen size in the left part of the window. To the right you will see a diminished version in the so called "navigator" and the genotype list. Forget about them now. We won’t use them in the first exercise and they will be explained in detail in parts II and III of this manual.





Below the image you will see a button with the title "Start evolution". Click on it and the main window will change. You will now see two versions of the image, the original on the left side and a modified version on the right side. The genotype list has been replaced by a row of five icons: one to the left and four to the right; of these four icons the first one appears with a red borderline. Below the icons a text has appeared: 1. Generation. In the status bar at the bottom of the window you will read "1. Generation, 1. Comparison". But ignore all this for now. These are just elements that will help you to understand where you are in the course of the evolution. Their meaning will be clear as soon as you understand the evolution process itself





The most important element that you now see is the so called "evaluator" below the images and to the right of the button that now has the title "Stop Evolution". Move the mouse to the left part of the evaluator. It will highlight with a red color and below the evaluator you will read "Not better or worse". Now move the mouse slightly to the right over the first of the small bars that make up the rest of the evaluator. It will be highlighted with a green color and the text will change to "1% better". Move it to the next bar, that will highlight in green and the text will change to "5% better". If you move the mouse cursor slowly to the right one bar after the other will highlight and the text will change to "10% better", "15% better" and so on (in 5% steps), until you reach the rightmost bar and the text will have changed to "100% better". Move the mouse to the left and to the right to get a feeling for it but don't click on it. It's much simpler than reading this explanation. If you are just reading this chapter without doing the exercise yourself try using the evaluator with the following Java implementation.



Before we go on we have to explain the use of the evaluator. What you have to do is to compare both images. The left image is still the original one. The right image is a new version of it. In our example it looks much brighter and colorful than the original one. It looks definitely better than the original. We have to tell the program what we think about it and that's what the evaluator is good for. It looks better but how much better? It is really much better but not perfect so let's give it a "75% better" evaluation. Move the mouse to the bar where the text "75% better" appears and click on it. You have just told the program that you think the second image looks 75% better than the original one and immediately after you have done so the second image will change to another modification of the original. The text in the status bar will have changed to "1. Generation, 2. Comparison".

Again we have to compare both images. The second looks a bit more colorful than the original image to the left. It looks better but not much better. So let's give it an evaluation of "15% better". Move the mouse cursor to the fourth bar, where the text "15% better" will appear and click on it. Again the second image will immediately change to a new version and the text in the status bar will be "1. Generation, 3. Comparison".

You know what to do now. You have to compare both images again and tell the program how you rate the second image in comparison to the first (still the original). It is almost as good as the first comparison, but not quite as good - well, in my opinion; you may decide otherwise! I'll give it a "65% better" rating by clicking on the appropriate bar. By now you know what will happen: a fourth version of the image will appear, the text in the status bar will say "1. Generation, 4. Comparison" and we have to give our judgment again.

Again the left image looks much better than the right one. In my opinion it is the best so far and I will give it a rating of "85% better". You know what to do by now: Click on the appropriate bar. But if you think you know what will happen now you're wrong! Now both images will change and the text in the status bar will say "2. Generation, 1. Comparison". That's definitely something new that happened now and I'll have to explain it, before we go on.

After four comparisons the program has evaluated your evaluations and combined them in such a way that it produced a new image (or better a new version of the original image) and shows it on the left side. In our example that image looks much better than the original version (and it should always look better, if you haven't done something terribly wrong). In the 1. generation we have compared the proposals of the software to the original version. As a result of these comparisons (our evaluations) the program has produced a new version and we have reached the second generation where we have to compare this new version with further proposals. There will be again 4 comparisons in the second generation as there were in the first and than we'll move on to a third generation and so on.

I think by now you've got the knack of it. There are not absolute objective rules I could show you. Many ratings are a matter of personal taste. Sometimes I'm content with the result within 3 or 4 generations, at other times I like to experiment for up to 20 or 30 generations. If you are doing the exercise while reading this tutorial you should go on for yourself now. It doesn't make sense to repeat the description of the same steps again and again and your own exercise wouldn't meet the description as an evolution never is exactly alike.

If there are no more positive ratings for two or three generations you should decide to stop. To stop the evolution process at any time just click on the button "Stop evolution". You will be asked, if you want to keep the left or the right image.

After finishing the evolution process you might want to compare your resulting image with the original image you started with. Choose the menu item "Compare to original" from the "View" menu. You will see the original image on the left of the main window and the new image resulting from the image evolution on the right side. To go back to the normal display mode that shows only the final image click on the "Back" button" below the images.





You may save your resulting image using the "Save" command or the "Save as" command from the file menu (in the first case your original image will be overwritten!). But you cannot only save your modified image, you may also save something called the "genotype". We have to explain what that means: When you optimized your image with the help of the image evolution you did not just modify your special image but developed a method of optimizing an image. You didn't know this but the program really didn't change your image at all; the program developed a method of changing your image and such a method is called a "genotype" (the name is adapted from evolution theory). If you save this method or genotype ("Save genotype as" from the File menu) you will be able to use it for other (especially similar) images as well without going through the evolution process at all. Your genotype will then appear in the genotype list in the lower right part of the main window (together with some predefined genotypes that come with the software) and can be applied to any image just by double-clicking on the genotype name.

You should now start to experiment yourself with some of your own images or with some of the example images delivered with the program. There is only one way to learn to use PHOTOGENETICS: learning by doing. You don't need any special knowledge, as with any other software for modifying images, you just have to get a feeling for it. It's really very simple and the results are overwhelming. Before you start on your own I will give you some more tips that may help you with your own experiments:

a) You should decide quite fast how to rate a comparison. One to two seconds is just right. Beginners and professional lithographers have the tendency to look at the images for a much to long time.

b) Don't stop too early. Many images seem to be almost perfect within two or three generations but very often they become even better when you give the evolution some more generations to refine the image. There may be some surprises waiting for you if you let evolution run for 15 to 30 generations.

c) Don’t go on forever. More than 30 generations are never needed if you don't evaluate in a completely deliberate way. If no better versions appear for 3 to 4 generations you should stop.

d) While the evolution is running you may go back to the last step by calling "Undo" from the "Edit" menu or simply by pressing Control+Z. In fact, you may go backwards through the whole course of the evolution step by step by use of this "Undo" function. You may again start with the evolution process at any point you have reached while stepping backwards through the evolution. Sometimes you may have lost the "perfect image" on the way but it is always possible to return to this version by stepping backwards.

e) To undo the whole evolution and start afresh stop the evolution at any time and apply the "NEUTRAL" genotype by double clicking it in the genotypes list. The standard "Undo" function in the Edit menu won't work with the evolution process as a whole.

2. Dewarping, Cropping and Resizing an image

Instead of beginning with a rather complicated explanation about the reason and use of this special function of PHOTOGENETICS we will load an example image which will clearly show the problem and we will use PHOTOGENETICS to solve this problem. Open the image "Box.jpg" that is delivered with the program and should be found in the same directory as PHOTOGENETICS. Use the menu item "Open" from the "File" menu or use the image browser that will called with the menu item "Open special" from the "File"-menu. You will see immediately that something is wrong with this image.





The shelves look extremely distorted! That is a problem you will have with all digital cameras if they use wide angle lenses. For technical reasons it's almost impossible to build the very small wide angle lenses needed for digital cameras in such a way that there is no distortion. (Perhaps it is possible if you are willing to pay ten times the price of your camera just for the lens system, but I really don't know if it is possible at all.) But if it cannot be done in hardware (optics) it can nevertheless be done in software by using the dewarping function of PHOTOGENETICS.

Before you do so for the first time you have to make sure that the program knows the camera you have shot the image with as the dewarping function needs special information for every lens. Open the preferences panel with the "Preferences" command from the "File" menu and choose your camera in the popup menu "Default Genotype".





Now choose the menu item "Dewarp" in the "Edit" menu or click on the dewarp icon in the toolbar. A few seconds later the image will appear with almost no distortion at all.





Now we will use the same image to demonstrate two further editing functions of PHOTOGENETICS. First we want to crop the image, taking away a part of the wall surrounding the shelves. Call "Crop image" from the "Edit" menu. The cursor will change to the cropping symbol. Click into the upper left edge of the image area and draw a frame around the shelves with the mouse button pressed down. You may move the cutting frame by clicking into the frame and dragging it to another position. You may resize it if you move the mouse cursor over one of the handles of the frame on the edges or on the sides until the cursor changes to arrow symbols and drag one of these handles.





If you have marked the area you want to keep click on the "Crop Image" button below the image area. Now the image is restricted to the area you have marked with the frame.

For the last step of this exercise call the "Resize Image..." command from the "Edit" menu. The panel titled "Resize Image" will appear on the screen. It displays the current size of the image in pixel.



You may enter a new width or height in the text fields under the headline "New Size". The other value will always follow as PHOTOGENETICS always resizes images proportionally. You may choose a smaller value to diminish the image size (so it fits exactly into a web page, for example) or you may enlarge it by choosing a bigger size. Enlarging images may give a better look in print as PHOTOGENETICS contains some very refined extrapolation algorithms that in many cases make up for the relatively low resolutions of digital cameras. Make sure that the "High Quality" option is checked and click on the "OK" button. After a short processing time the image will have been recalculated to the new size.

Now you may start to optimize this image using the evolution but we won’t go into that again.

3. Calibrating your Printer

If you use your digital camera like a conventional camera you will want the final results printed on paper, not just look at them on your computer's monitor. There are a lot of quite cheap color printers that provide excellent results especially the so called photo printers or printers with an optional photographic quality mode. You may print on any kind of color printer with PHOTOGENETICS but in many cases you won't be quite happy with the results. You will get better results when you use a special function of PHOTOGENETICS, the so called printer calibration. We don't claim this printer calibration to be something like a color management system as the name may suggest. It's just a way of adapting your printouts to your personal taste, the same way you don't optimize images with the evolution to some predefined standard but to fit your personal taste.

Now let's do one example calibration so you will learn how to do it. Choose "Printer Calibration" from the File menu. At first the standard printer dialog for your printer will appear. Set it up as you always do and start printing. Now the printer calibration dialog will appear on the screen.



You will have to wait until the printout is finished. Have a look at the calibration dialog while you are waiting. You will see a so called black and white image (in fact a half tone image with grey tones) to the left and five icon representations of the same image to the right. They are symbols for the five printed versions that are just being produced by your printer. If your printer has finished his job take a good look at the printouts. You will want to compare it to the original image on the screen. Click on the image in the upper left of the dialog to enlarge its size. Now you will have to decide which one you like most or you think is the best one. Now choose the appropriate icon representation of this image by clicking into the small circle below it and then click on the "OK" button. The printer calibration dialog will change it's appearance and your printer will start printing again.



This time your printer will output three color images and again each one in five different versions. These images are shown on the left side of the printer calibration dialog and may be enlarged by clicking on them. For every image there are five icon representations that stand for the five printed versions. When your printer has done its job you have to compare each series of five images with the original version on the screen and decide which one you like best. Click into the small circle below the icon representation to give the program your evaluation of the results. If you have done that for each of the three images click on the "OK" button. You have just produced a printer genotype and the only thing left is to give it a name so you can identify it later on. From now on you will be able to choose that printer genotype by its name in the preferences dialog that may be called from the File menu.



You may do different calibrations for different printers or for different kinds of paper or different kinds of screening/dithering. Every calibration process produces a printer genotype (similar to the genotypes produced by the evolution). You may switch between different printer genotypes using the popup menu "Printer Genotype" in the preferences dialog.

II Quick Tour

In this part of the manual we will give you a short overview of all functions of PHOTOGENETICS without going into all the details. If you know how to work with the Windows 95/98 operating system and with any kind of program the information in the following chapters will enable you to use every feature of PHOTOGENETICS. If you are looking for more detailed information about a certain program function you will find this in the reference manual (part III of this manual).

1. Using the image browser

1.1 Loading Images with the Image Browser

The image browser is automatically opened when you start the program. It may be opened later on at any time by selecting the menu item "Open special..." from the "File" menu in the main window. The browser window consists of four parts: the tool bar at the top of the browser window, the file browser on the left side, the images preview on the right side and three buttons at the bottom of the window.



Although you can do much more with it, you may simply use the image browser as a very comfortable way of selecting one or more images to be loaded into PHOTOGENETICS. Use the left part of the window (the file browser) to select a directory on any local or remote (network) hard disk that is connected to your computer. The file browser looks and works exactly like the file browser of the windows explorer so you will know how to use it. As soon as you have selected a directory that contains images in one of the file formats supported by PHOTOGENETICS, the program will display a preview of all those images in the right part of the browser window. These images may be shown in three different sizes. You may switch between small, medium and large preview size at any time by selecting the appropriate size button in the toolbar. To load just one image select it with the mouse and click on the "Open" button at the bottom of the window or even simpler by double clicking the image you want to load.

You may select more than one image at the same time, using either the shift key to mark the first and last image of a series or the control key to choose deliberately form the list of images. Again this works exactly like in the Windows Explorer or in any file window of your operating system so you'll know how to do it. After selecting the images click on the "Open" button to load them all into PHOTOGENETICS at the same time.

1.2 Advanced Features of the Image Browser

By using some of the more advanced features of the image browser working with PHOTOGENETICS will be even more comfortable. You may turn any selected image 90 degrees to the left or to the right thus switching from landscape to portrait format or vice versa by clicking on the appropriate symbols in the toolbar. Again this will work not only on one but on all selected images at the same time. You will see the result immediately on the previews and when the images are loaded into PHOTOGENETICS they already have the right orientation.

You also may assign any existing genotype (= image optimizing method) to an image before loading it. When you then load the image using the "Open" button PHOTOGENETICS will immediately apply the selected genotype to the image. Again this works with any numbers of images at the same time. The genotype is applied to the preview image also so you will be able to see the result even before loading the image into PHOTOGENETICS.

To assign a genotype to an image or a whole series of images you first have to select the image(s). Then you may choose a genotype from the popup menu in the tool bar of the browser window. Alternatively you may click on the preview of an image with the right mouse button and choose a genotype from the context menu that will pop up. You will prefer this method if you want to assign different genotypes to different images. You don't even have to select the image first to do this.

All these settings (turning the images or applying genotypes to them) are stored permanently into a database. If you open the browser window for the next time these settings are still relevant, even if you have left the program and restarted it in the mean time. So if you want to free the images from these settings you have to undo them explicitly by choosing "-none-" genotype or by turning them the other way round.

If you still don't know what a genotype is (in the context of PHOTOGENETICS) you will find more about it in chapter 4 of this Quick Tour and in chapter 1 of the tutorial.

1.3 Batch Conversion with the Image Browser

If you only want to change the orientation of images and apply previously defined genotypes to them (either your own or default genotypes delivered with the software) you don't even have to load them into PHOTOGENETICS but may use the comfortable batch conversion function from the image browser. To do this you first have to assign the orientation and the genotypes to the images as explained in the previous chapter. Then you have to select the images you want to convert (if you haven't already done so). Then you must click on the "Convert all" button to start the batch process. A file selector will appear where you have to specify the destination folder for the conversion (so you won't overwrite your original files), the file format and optionally the compression quality. Then you may take a rest or have a cup of coffee while PHOTOGENETICS is automatically doing all the work for you.

2. Acquiring Images from your Camera

Provided that your digital camera's software package includes a so called TWAIN driver you may connect to your camera from PHOTOGENETICS and so acquire images directly from your camera's memory. A TWAIN driver is a software interface for image sources that is delivered with almost any digital camera, scanner or video grabber. The program features offered by the TWAIN interface vary to a large amount for different hardware. You have to look into the documentation of your camera's software to find out more about them.

To access your camera or any other hardware image source from PHOTOGENETICS you first have to choose the hardware you want to connect to, especially if you have more than one image source connected to your computer. Call the menu item "Select Source..." from the "File" menu and a list of all connected image sources (TWAIN drivers) will appear. Choose your camera from the list (or your scanner if you like) and click on the button "Choose". With the menu item "Acquire..." you may now access your camera directly at any time.

3. Scrolling and Zooming in the image window

Beside the image area GPO's main window contains some convenient tools although all of them may be switched off (see chapter 6 for more details). The so called "Navigator" in the upper right part of the window gives you control over the display size and the visible area of the image you are working on. The navigator contains an overview of the whole image. The active area, that is shown in the image area or image subwindow, is symbolized by a red frame. If only a part of the image is visible you can grab this frame with the mouse and move it to any other part of the image. The visible area in the main image window will immediately follow and display the part of the image that is covered by the red frame. Alternatively you may grab the image itself with the mouse in the image window and move it to any direction and so change the visible area. Of course you may also use the sliders of the image window to change the visible image area. In both cases the red frame in the navigator will follow your movements and show where you are relative to the whole image.

If an image is loaded into PHOTOGENETICS it is always displayed in such a size that it fits completely into the image area. This "Optimal View" may be restored at any time using the menu item of the same name from the "View" menu or by typing CONTROL+H. You may change the display size of the image in many ways using the controls in the navigator below the overview.

By moving the slider you may infinitely vary the display size. If you click into the slider area at the left side of the slider the display size will be diminished by 50%; if you click to the right of the slider it will be enlarged by 50%. If you click on the symbols on the left or right side of the sliders the image size will be snapped to the nearest "binary size" that is smaller or higher then the actual zoom factor. Binary sizes are 25%, 50%, 100% (original size, where every pixel of the image is displayed on the screen), 200%, 400% and 800%. If the image is already displayed at a binary size its display size will be diminished or enlarged by a factor of 2, if you click on the left or the right symbol.

Zooming (changing the display size) and scrolling (changing the visible area) is always possible, even during the evolution of an image. If you start an image evolution the image is always displayed in such a size, that both versions are fully visible, but you may change that at any time during the evolution process and so check how some details of the image are changed by the evolution process. (But this is not the recommended way of doing an image evolution!)

4. Working with genotypes

Besides the image evolution the use of genotypes to modify images is the most important and innovative feature of PHOTOGENETICS. Genotypes are the results of the evolution process. If you use the evolution process to optimize an image you always develop a new genotype. You may see a genotype as the method that is responsible for the conversion of the original image to the final result. This method is called a genotype because it is produced as the result of evolutionary strategies and genetic algorithms. There are other types of genotypes as well; the printer calibration for example (see chapter 3 of part I) produces a kind of genotype that is used to provide better quality in print. The default genotype for a certain digital camera, which may be chosen in the preferences dialog, is another example of a genotype.

PHOTOGENETICS is delivered with some predefined genotypes. You have the possibility to produce your own genotypes. If you have optimized a certain image you may not only save the modified image but also the genotype by which the image was optimized, using the command "Save Genotype as..." from the "File" menu. You have to name the genotype and you may add a description. All standard genotypes (not the printer genotypes) are displayed in the genotypes list on the lower right side of the main window. You may apply any existing genotype to the active image by selecting it in the genotypes list and clicking on the "Apply" button below the list or by just double clicking the genotype in the list. The genotype is then immediately applied to the active image. So you may test very easily every existing genotype on a new image. By clicking on the "Undo" button below the list you may restore the original image.

The reason for saving your own genotypes is very simple. If you have optimized a certain image the genotype you have produced in optimizing the image might very well optimize similar images in the same way. If you have shot a series of pictures at the seashore and optimized one of them the probability is very high that the same genotype may be used for the whole series of images with the same success. So you may produce genotypes for certain themes or for certain lightning conditions and so on. You may also apply a previously defined genotype on an image and then start the evolution to optimize the image even more. The use of previously defined genotypes with the image browser and in batch processing is described in chapter 1.

5. Printing images

You may print your images from PHOTOGENETICS using the "Printer Setup..." and "Print" commands from the file menu. The printer dialogs that will appear depend on the printer you use and its driver.

With the "Print Preview" command you will get a preview that shows the size and orientation of your image(s) on the paper. You may zoom into and out of the image and start the printout from the preview window.

All these are standard function as you will find them in most programs but there is one big difference when printing images from PHOTOGENETICS. You may (and should) use printer genotypes to improve the quality of your printouts. Before you start printing you should open the preferences panel (using the "Preferences..." Command from the "File" menu and select a printer genotype from the popup menu. These printer genotypes are not delivered with the program. You have to produce them yourself using the printer calibration function of PHOTOGENETICS which is described in detail in chapter 3 of the tutorial. It is recommended that you develop different printer genotypes for every kind of paper (standard, high grade, glossy and so on) that you use with your printer.

6. More Editing and Special Functions

6.1 Dewarping an Image

The dewarping function compensates for geometric distortions that always appear in shots taken with wide angle lenses. The parameters for this function have to be set up for every camera or lens separately. You cannot do this yourself; it has to be done by Q-RESEARCH. You may choose the right setup for your camera or lens by choosing the default genotype for your camera in the preferences panel.

The dewarp function is started with the "Dewarp" command from the "Edit" menu or from the appropriate icon in the toolbar. It may be reverted using the "Undo" command from the "Edit" menu. The dewarping is described in more detail in chapter 2 of the tutorial.

6.2 Resizing an Image

Resizing an image means reducing or enlarging the number of pixels of the image. To do this choose the "Resize Image..." command from the "Edit" menu. In the dialog that will appear on the screen you may resize the image by entering a new height or width in pixel. PHOTOGENETICS always resizes images proportionally; so the width will automatically be adapted if you change the height and vice versa. We recommend to always use the high quality option as the resulting image will look much better. The original size may be restored using the "Undo" command from the "Edit" menu.

You may reduce the size of an image if you don't need the best quality and want to spare memory usage especially for publishing on the internet. But why should one enlarge the size? The resolution of images from digital cameras is restricted by the hardware (the resolution of the CCD chip in the camera). In many cases this size is not big enough for high quality printing above a certain size of the images (in print) and you won't get a higher quality by enlarging the number of pixels. But that is not quite true with PHOTOGENETICS as the software contains some very refined extrapolation algorithms that may produce high quality output in larger sizes than your digital camera will be able to provide. It depends on the contents of the image if and to which degree this is possible. If you need higher image resolutions in print than your digital camera is able to provide you should try this function of PHOTOGENETICS. In many cases the result will be really astonishing.

6.3 Cropping an image

Sometimes you will want to restrict your image to a certain area. Use the "Crop Image" command from the "Edit" menu to reduce the image to this area. The mouse cursor will change to the cropping tool and you will have to draw a frame around the area you want to keep. This area (the frame) may be moved by clicking into the frame and dragging it or resized by dragging the corner points. Click on the "Crop image" button below the image to finish the cropping or on the "Cancel" button to stop it and return to the normal working mode. Even after you have cropped the image you may restore the original area by calling "Undo" from the "Edit" menu.

6.4 Removing Red Eyes

If you have taken a flash shot of people and the flashlight reflects from the eye's red background you will often get the famous red eye effect: the parts of the eyes that should look white appear more or less red. You may correct this with a special pen in PHOTOGENETICS. Call "Remove Red Eyes" from the "Edit" menu. The mouse cursor will change to a pen and you are able to restore the white of the eyes by painting on the critical areas. Click on the "Accept" button to finish the operation or on the "Undo" button to return to the original image.

6.5 Turning Images

You may turn images from landscape to portrait format or vice versa by clicking on the "turn left" or "turn right" icon in the toolbar. This can be undone at any time by turning the image in the opposite direction.

6.6 Setting the Color Temperature

All the colors in your images are dependent on the color of lighting during exposition of your images. The technical term for this dependency is "color temperature". The human eye can automatically correct the influence of different colors of lighting by a process called color adaptation. A technical imitation of this is the so called white balance of video cameras. Your digital camera may have settings to adapt to different light sources. The same can be done with the "Color temperature" function of PHOTOGENETICS that you may call from the "Special" menu.

By moving the slider to the left the whole image will look more redish or warmer; by moving the slider to the right your image will look more cold (blue). Click on the "OK" button to change your image permanently or on the "Cancel" button to return to the previous version of the image.

You don´t have to use this special function as the change of color temperature is part of the evolution process. But if you want to change the color temperature manually you should do so before you go through the image evolution.

6.7 Changing Genotype Intensity

Sometimes you will look at the result of an image evolution and get the feeling that the changes are a bit too extreme. You may reduce the strength or intensity of the genotype by calling the "Genotype Intensity" function from the "Special" menu.

Move the slider slightly to the left to reduce the intensity of your genotype until the image looks just right and click the "OK" button. Click the "Cancel" button or leave the setting at 100% to return to your previous version.

7. Command and Function Outline

In this chapter you will find a short summary of all functions and commands of PHOTOGENETICS. Most of them have already been described in the context of the previous chapters and in the tutorial. A more detailed description of every single program function can be found in the reference manual (part III).

7.1 Menu Commands

The "File" menu contains mostly standard functions as you will find them in any program running under the Windows operating system. It is divided into 6 groups. The first group contains standard functions to open or save files; with "Open Special..." you may access the image browser (see chapter 1). The commands of the second group ("Acquire..." and "Select source") are used to access your digital camera or any other TWAIN compatible image source (see chapter 2). The group of print commands is mostly standard except for the "Printer Calibration..." that is described in chapter 3 of the tutorial. The next group contains only one command to open the preferences panel that will be described in chapter 7.3. In the next group you will find the names of the last 4 images you have loaded into PHOTOGENETICS; you may access them again directly from the menu. The last group contains only the "Exit" command to leave the program. The "Edit" menu gives you access to the standard "Undo" function and to most image editing functions: "Dewarp", "Start Evolution", "Resize Image...", "Crop Image" and "Remove Red Eyes". All of these functions are described in detail in the previous chapters.

The "View" menu contains two groups of commands. In the first group you may enable or disable the "Toolbar", the "Status Bar", the "Navigator" and the "Genotypes" list. By default they are all enabled and this is the recommended way to use PHOTOGENETICS. If you work with a low monitor resolution (e. g. 640 by 480) or if you want to use the whole window area for the image you might prefer to disable one or more of them. The second group contains special command for the image display: "Compare to Original" calls a special display mode where you see two versions of the image, the original and the result of your editing, beside each other. With "Optimal View" the display size of an image is adapted to your screen, so that it fits completely into the image window.

The "Window" menu consists of two parts. In the first group you will find the commands "Cascade" and "Tile", that rearrange all subwindows with loaded images in a certain way, and the "Arrange Icons" command that will rearrange minimized windows that may be scattered inside the main window neatly at the bottom. The second group contains the names of all images loaded into PHOTOGENETICS at the moment; selecting one of them brings it to the front.

Two more special editing functions may be accessed from the "Special" menu: "Color Temperature..." and "Genotype Intensity" are both described in chapter 6.

The "Help" menu gives access to the "About PHOTOGENETICS..." opening window. It contains the WWW address of "Q-Research" and you may go there directly in search of more information, updates and support.

7.2 Toolbar Functions

The toolbar at the top of the window gives you direct access to the most important functions of PHOTOGENETICS just by clicking on the Icon. These are (from left to right): "Open Image Browser", "Save" the active image, "Dewarp" the active image, set the "Color Temperature", "Crop Image", "Remove Red Eyes", "Turn left" and "Turn right" by 90 degrees, "Print" the image(s) and display the "About PHOTOGENETICS" window. You won't find the most important function here, as the image evolution is started with the button below the image window.

7.2.1 Color bar

To the right of the toolbar icons you will find the color bar, but only if you have enabled it in the preferences panel. If you move the mouse above the image the color below the mouse pointer is displayed in the color bar in different ways: as color area, as RGB values and in a special way visualizing the composition of the color.

7.3 The Preferences Panel

The preferences panel is called with the "Preferences" command from the file menu. You should set up the preferences at least once before you start working with PHOTOGENETICS.

The "Default Genotype" popup menu should be set to the default genotype of your digital camera. These default genotypes are delivered with the program and may contain special information (like the "dewarping" setup) that you may not provide yourself. With some camera models the default genotype produces an image correction that should always be applied to images from this type of camera. If you don't find a default genotype for your camera you should leave it empty or look up the support area of Q-Research on the internet.

The "Printer Genotype" popup menu will be empty if you receive the program. You first have to do a printer calibration as described in chapter 3 of the tutorial. Then you may select the printer genotype in the popup menu. If you have done different printer calibrations for different kinds of paper, ink or different printers you have to go to the preferences panel to choose the right one before printing. (See also chapter II, 5.)

The "Folder for temporary data" and "Folder for browser cache" fields may be left blank or unchanged. The only reason for changing them might be to use a different hard disk drive that provides more free disk space than the hard disk that contains the program itself. Use the "Browse" button to choose a new directory for the temporary files.

If you want to use the color bar (see chapter 7.2) you have to enable it by clicking in the small field beside "Show Color Bar". By default this is disabled.


©1999 Q-RESEARCH Inc. All rights reserved.