Compositor - Not Your Every Other Image-Editing Software

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Compositor - Not Your Every Other Image-Editing Software


Part 1

     I've been presenting to my readers program reviews that are almost all image-editing software and for Mac. I've been debating whether to purchase a 27" monitor for my PC. My PC is about 5 years old now, but works quite well, all things considered. However, I've been spoiled on my Mac, but for the 5-10 times a week that it seems to crash for no reason at all. But the "crashes" are only when I'm on the Net.

I'm spoiled because of the screen size. 

     Personally, I never found the Mac to be that much better than a PC. And when Apple finally had to go with Intel chips, all the peacock-strutting by Apple about the speed of a Mac went out the door. I don't find the Mac all that better, especially when you consider the financial premium that you pay to have one! However, I'm getting off track. Anyway, I might just start reviewing PC programs for there certainly are many more out there for PCs.

   To get back on the topic, I found Compositor on the Apple Software page. There are a few software programs that seem to use the Apple software for their  main site after searches are done. You can eventually find the Compositor site after some research.

   Compositor is an image-editing software, and it was created by 1 person. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.  I'll do more research later in the week to clarify and elaborate on this. This program is relatively inexpensive, priced at $39.00 U.S. But what's more interesting is that it has certain "quirks" that make it perform differently, hence my title.  Certain tools don't quite perform like other programs, and certain other tools perform unbelievably! It makes you wonder why the "other" program doesn't function like this.  You'll see what I 'm saying later in the week, but for today, I'll show you the rubber stamp-wow!

** I will need more time to work with this program, 

so please return as I expand on this instalment. **

 The Compositor Logo

The Opening Window

The opening window certainly looks like other programs, but its' colour palette is presented differently.

That's our wonderful dog Buddie - a Poodle.

He's the best companion (I don't like to call him a pet) that Heidi and I have ever had!

I used levels to brighten up  Buddy.

So far, everything in the program works "normally" in term of a comparison to other programs.

Then I came across this small window.

What you do is take "snapshots" of a the latest window of an image that you're working with.

You then can later press the photo and go back to whichever one you pressed.

It's like the history menu, but you have a "visual record" of the progress of your working image.

Clever and ingenious!

 I was looking for "automatic colour correction", but I either haven't found it yet or it doesn't exist.

If you're a PDE person (pre-digital era), then you know all about colour, colour filters, colour correction, colour conversion etc. This sounds like Bubba in the Forest Gump Movie with his many shrimp recipes!

Anyway, you'll begin to learn about correcting colour the old-fashiopned way. That is, by actually using the opposite colour to correct the wrong colour in an image.

In Buddy's photo, I added cyan (or removed red), and added some blue (or removed some yellow).

What I'm not crazy about is that any change in colour will only be shown in the small photo!

It's too small for me!

Perhaps, there a command to enlarge this window, and I'll discover it later.

Here's another image that I used to write an article.

The article was about the relative different sizes of old cast iron cars.

When you open up an image,and especially a large image in Compositor, the image is very large.

It took me a second use of the program to figure out how to reduce the image size on the screen.

Different, but that's OK. 

I like to see some "quirks" in a program.

I was spotting some small spots with the rubber stamp when I accidentally discovered the 

wonderful "touch" and control of this tool in Compositor.

I removed the large black Hubley car from the above image.

The rubber stamp has the "usual" size and hardness  controls. 

It also has "spread" which I'll need to work with. 

When you press the option key, the small triangle of the source for the rubber stamp

points to the source and is white.

When you release the option key,, the small triangle of the source for the rubber stamp

points to the source, and is black.

What's interesting is the ease with which to work with Compositor's rubber stamp!

I got carried away, and decided to do some fast retouching on the Hubley cast iron racer.

I "messed up" on the tail fin where you can notice the softness.

However, I was able to retouch the rest of the scratches in no time at all and with very little effort.

By that I mean not having to reconfigure the settings of the rubber stamp.

Part 2

   ( Tuesday, November 22, 2011)

     I got busy withy E-Bay, so I didn't work on this instalment since Sunday. First E-Bay offered  free 1500 listings (does anyone have that many or the time to add them?), then they added a 1 cent/ listing yesterday (does anyone have any items to list after the 1500?).

   So I'm just expanding on Compositor today. What I like about it, is that is different. Like some of the other image-editing programs that I've written about, it has similar functions like "The One", however, it has lots of its' own unique features and design elements.

Herre's one of my photos from Hawaii

Here's the histogram of the image.

I really like the design presentation of the histogram!

A "histogram" is simply a visual presentation of the range of tones from black to white everything in-between.

What the histogram above shows:

 1.  The dark tones (left) are missing detail (the graph should go to the left vertical side)

2. The light tones are too dark (the graph should go to the right vertical side).

Here's the "normal" histogram that all other softwares have.

Here's the improved image.

I pulled the pointers to the left and right verticals to improve on the  dark ares at both ends (darks were too dark  with loss of detail, and the light tones were also too dark, without enough lighter tones).

Here is the "snapshot window).

You can always undo the previous command or simply go back to the original window.

OK, enough of the regular command to improve the image to "normal".

Let's try a few "enhancement" and artistic functions.

One of the filters to enhance the image 

I liked this one.

Hawaii was built up millions of years ago from volcanoes.

In parts, it's very desert-like and "alient".

Sure enough, there was the filter above" that by happenstance, I found.

I placed a small "saturn" into the upper right corner.

Here's a "Multi" command

I didn't know what that was, so I pressed it.

I got this 4-image duplication 

Great for when you need to make multiple photos of a baby's Christening or a newborn baby to send to all of the relatives (a real old-fashioned paper print!).

To be Continued......