Digital postcard

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	Adobe PhotoDeluxe - Digital postcard
	Source images Advanced Menus Resize Save work in progress Erase background Use layers Combine images Add text Export to other file formats
	Although this tutorial describes how to make a composite image for the digital postcard and add text to it with Adobe PhotoDeLuxe's Advanced Menus, any image editing software can be used. Extra resources: tutorials explaining how to combine images and use text in Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro.
	NOTE: You need to have saved a digital photo of the painting and one of yourself expressing surprise.

	Take a picture ... The example shows Henri Rousseau's painting of 1891, Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!), which is on display at the National Gallery, London: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG6421


	Open Adobe PhotoDeLuxe and click on the Advanced Menus button at the bottom left of the screen.

	Select Get & Fix Photo, then Get Photo and Open File. Navigate to where you have saved your copy of the painting and open it. Open the photo of yourself in the same way.

	Click on the open picture of you and drag it onto the painting. Close the original without saving changes.
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	Click on the image of you and a bounding box will appear around it. Drag the corners in or out to resize the image. Hold the Shift key while you drag to constrain proportions. You can also rotate the figure. Press Enter on your keyboard to apply the changes.

	Save your work. Go to File > Save As and navigate to the folder you have made for this project. Make sure that the file type is .PDD. This is a PhotoDeLuxe file. Do not choose to Add to Album as this will increase the file storage space.

	It is easier to work on the image if you zoom in on it. To do this select the Zoom Tool and click on the area of the image where you want to work once or twice.

	To remove the background around the figure, select Tools > Eraser and from the Eraser Palette, choose a size. As you move your mouse over the unwanted background it will be deleted. Use smaller sizes nearer the figure for accuracy and click Undo if you make a mistake.
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	Save your work: File > Save.

	As in more sophisticated image manipulation programs such as Photoshop, you are working on layers to make these changes. Viewing the layers will give you a better understanding of the process and more control over the effects. Select View and click on Show Layers. The active layer is white.

	To set the figure into the jungle we will cut and paste one of the plants into the foreground. Make the painting layer active by clicking on Layer 0 [NB you can change the name of a layer by double-clicking on it and typing a new name]. And click on the eye next to the picture of you to make it invisible for the moment.
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	Choose Select > Selection Tools > Polygon. Click carefully right around the dark green plant in the bottom right corner, zooming in on it if necessary. Double-click to close the selection.

	Go to Edit > Copy and then to Edit > Paste. The plant will be pasted onto a new layer and you can move it and resize it as before. Click where the eye was to the left of the figure layer to make it visible again. If the figure is in front of the plant, click on the plant layer and drag it above the figure layer on the Layer Palette. Save your work.

	To add text to make a digital postcard select Tools > Text and pick a font style and colour. Type in your message and click OK. Double-click the text to make changes if it is not legible. Press Enter to apply changes. The text is placed on a special Text layer. Save your work.
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	The montage is now complete. To make the file size smaller and to save the picture in a format that can be read by all other programs (which PDD files cannot), select Save & Send > Export. The top of the screen changes. Follow the steps: Export > Other Export. From the drop down list in the Export window choose JPEG: this is a picture type which is universally recognised and which compresses picture files with little loss of detail. It’s good for tonal changes. Make sure that you are saving the picture in the right folder and click Save. When asked if the program should continue converting to JPEG format click OK.


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	© RKM 2002 - 2007
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