Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u

v2016.147   Apr 14, 2016

Priority: Med

v2016.147 offers major improvements/features for the new vanish tool:

• Quality: Higher quality vanishing intelligently fills vanish with applicable parts of image around it.
• Masks: Use masks to mark areas to be vanished: areas outside the masks will not be affected!
• Remove: Ability to visually mark and remove vanishes/masks.
• Video: See the new vanish tool advanced techniques video: https://youtu.be/6GC3-xt4lSQ
• Fixes: Various fixes for other general features (not related to the vanish tool).

Mike

Yet another enhancement, Thanks.

Very good video, 

Jeff

Here's the sequel video that will give you the secret trick to doing a fast and clean VANISH
Remember, full screen for HD viewing

https://youtu.be/lgWd_MkyjRg

Fred

Having a bit of trouble managing this feature.

Will have some lunch and have another go later.

Fred, that video interesting, I could use that to delete all the image and leave clear blue sky, often that would be a more interesting image :) :) 

Jeff

Two points:
When you drag the cursor, hold it down until you see the results as you might have to drag more or bring it back in.
2) Did you practice your "Bloop? sound??

Fred

Practice and patience is all you need. Also watch Mike's video more than once and take note of his technique and comments.
See attached screen shots of my early efforts.
The first was reasonably straight forwad and a typical sort of object that needs to vanish, I did use a mask too
The second was more complicated with tree branches at the top of the image (no mask needed), People bottom centre (mask used) and the white marquee in the background, left side (mask used).
The latter was the most complicated and QU Vanish did an excellent job, as good as a normal clone tool I think.
Terry

Terry,

Great job!  I see no evidence that those objects were even there in the photo.  Maybe I should turn the videos over to you!  :)

Mike

Thanks Mike!
I've put some 2000 pixel versions on Flickr of the more difficult image.
Use the left/right arrows to swap beteen the 2 versions
Before
https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/26442022565/in/datetaken/lightbox/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/26442022565/in/datetaken/lightbox/)
After
https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/26416093046/in/datetaken/lightbox/ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/terry-m_flickrphotos/26416093046/in/datetaken/lightbox/)

Terry

Looks wonderful and I can't wait to play with this when I get home.  A few questions though.  Would like more details on the purpose of the mask - that is what issue is it addressing?  In the video, what if we tried to remove the mailbox without the masking?  Also what about the "Dye" click ?  What does that do?  (Maybe both of these will be obvious when I download and use the software)

Thanks for yet another greeat addition to QU

Mel W - Columbia, Md.

Mel,

Good questions.  I had hoped to cover them in more detail in the video but was trying to keep it to about 10 minutes.

The masks:
What you are doing with the mask is marking the area that gets affected by your vanishes.  By putting the mask over the mailbox, I can guarantee that only the areas that are masked off get changed by your vanishes.  It's a good way to make sure you don't "damage" other parts of the image because you are making sure that only the masked off areas are being changed.  Keep in mind that you can still vanish in other areas (outside the masked area) but for any vanish that intersects a mask, only the area inside the mask is changed even if the size of your vanish extends well beyond that region.  For the mailbox, we didn't really "need" a mask because the areas around the mailbox were pretty random.  The masks really come in handy though when you are trying to remove a pole or an extra person behind the top of your main subject's head.  You know you don't want to "warp" the image around the top of the main subject's head so you put masks on what you want to remove, making sure to mask just down to the main subject's head and stop there (no masks protruding into your subject).  That way you know the top of what you do NOT want to remove isn't getting damaged by the "warping" of the vanish tool near that area.

The dye:
A mask is basically just another use for the red eye tool.  If you want to remove red eye, you click on Mask/RE and click in the center of the red pupil and draw outward until the color is removed.  In masking, it essentially does the same thing: the masks just remove the color from inside the masks and makes them B/W (and a little darker).  That doesn't always show up very well if you put a mask over an area that is very dark, bright, or already near neutral (concrete sidewalk for example), so the dye just "injects" some dye into the mask circles so you can see exactly what is masked.  It's for visual reference only, to help with the vanish tool application.  If you put a mask on an image and you don't follow up with a vanish in that area, obviously the image will have a little B/W spot where your masks are.  That B/W area is really on your image: it's up to you to follow up with a vanish on top, else your image will have B/W blots on it.  By using the vanish, you are filling (vanishing) in the B/W blots.

So if you want to see what your image looks like with the masks and before you vanish, you look at it without the dye.  Use the dye as an on-screen "reveal" of the actual areas that are masked: so you can see if you missed spots and so you can more easily see the areas that are going to be filled when you use the vanish tool near those masks.

Mike

Mike -

Thank you! That is exactly the explanation I wanted.

Mel

I should add that, like a cloning tool, practice makes perfect.  Practice on some objects to get the hang of it as it's a truly unique tool.  It's not meant to replace a cloning tool since cloning tools can also be used when you want to repeat/copy information to make more of something.  But for things you want to remove, the vanish tool can often do the job, sometimes easier than cloning when you get the hang of it.

Mike

And a fix for me. Thank you!!!

Hello All

Still working on this feature.

I spent 2 hours yesterday on a test image, not successful.  I think I picked a difficult one, a Electricity Pylon on the skyline of snow covered hill with bits and pieces of blue sky and cloud involved.  Also tested with ACDsee and Elem 7 - no better.  I used the mouse and a Wacom.

I am right handed, about 60 years ago I fell down some stairs, a full flight on my backside (I am in polite mode)  and right elbow, ever since I have suffered from 'pins and needles' in right hand which can make intricate work a bit of a challenge.  Got it now just typing this. 

I will keep working at it - the Terry illustrations show it can be done!!

Jeff

Hi Jeff,
Send a nice size JPG  to Terry amd me... and I'll pass it to Mike. We will have a shot at it.
Sometimes, extra difficult images are good. It makes us all better, and most of all Mike may see something that needs a tweak in QU.

Fred

Hello Fred.

Had another session with image and will send you a before and after direct 2.2 meg jpegs each so should email ok.

As you will see it's one of my failures, complete pole clutter, when shooting from moving train I just take anything that might be interesting.

One of my problems was I was dragging down so it was pulling in the 'arms' and creating further problems.  Getting rid of the arms first seemed to be the solution. Full screen it still does not satisfy me, but practice make perfect or a bit better.

Jeff

 

The electric towers on the mountain seem easy enough

ARMS?
Jeff, I need you to tell me what you call arms? Do you mean telephone poles?
Pole Clutter?
The long trail of poles seems to be the depth of the shot.

Specifically what are we vanishing?

Fred

The Electric Pylons on the top left sky line, the correct term for the 'arms' is according to Wickepedia 'cross arms' that carry the wires.

I found it a difficult job, if you look closely you can faintly see the actual wires and these get copied when replacing the actual pylon and make the replacement look a bit mucky.

It is only a test of my skill using the feature, which I think will be very useful.

I would add that I have a thing about poles, telephone wires, electric wires and general urban clutter, I always have.
Our own bungalow which I built in a virgin field has no clutter, all wires are underground, - I hand dug the trenches, no TV aerials, no Sat dishes, even the washing clothes posts retract out of sight.

jeff
     

According to Wiki that is not arms. That is a tower. Arms in this country too, are the same. The cross bars that hold the wires and insulators from pole top pole.

OK Now that I know that you want that electric tower removed from the upper left and the wire from upper right, (plus a dust blob that is on your sensor upper left), plus a second tower about 10 miles farther up on the left side, .. Done in 2 minutes.

Terry will spend some extra time and probably do a slightly better job, but I am much older than Terry, and do not have extra time to use up.   :P

Fred

Here's 2 minutes more to clean the upper left area some more.
I also downsized the screen snaps so you can see the right side of the shot as well.
My screen snap program does not play nicely with Instaview in Qimage. So that was a challenge to snap from that screen.

Fred

I spent 15 minutes and got a perfect result.
See screen shot of the area where the pylon was.
The screen shot shows Fred's 2 minute session on the right, my 15 minute session on the left.
There are other items that were removed within the 15 mins which cannot be seen.

That was super Terry... Now look at my second post with the 4 minute job. See the improvement?
This is the point. The more you practice the better results you will get.
The longer you work at making it closer and closer to perfect, the better results you get.
Remember what Mike said. There is no limit to how many dabs of Vanish you want to apply.
Have fun with this.
It is a breakthrough tool from Qimage Ultimate and our Mike.

Just take your time to get the hang of it.
You saw how Deep Focus Sharpening changed how you sharpen your images, and Unsharp Mask is now obsolete.
Learn Vanish and you will rarely look for a clone tool  ever again.

Fred

Jeff,

One piece of information about vanish that might help...

Vanish is adaptive.  It looks around the edge of the vanish circle to see what to include inside (what to draw inward and what to ignore).  It looks at what is around the perimeter and uses standard deviation, which means it'll draw in the information that is "common" and throw out the outliers.  This allows you to start dragging on an area like clouds and "cut" poles, or start in an area of grass and cut out a stick at the edge of the vanish circle.  However, if you start on the pole or stick and drag, it'll see that the pole/stick intersects both sides (or more) and it'll include it inside the vanish, smearing the object instead of removing it.  So basically, if you start in the middle of that tower and drag, it's going to pull tower in and just create a distorted tower.  If you start outside the area, however, and drag until the vanish reaches the edge of the tower pieces, it'll tend to "cut" them out (to a point).  Of course, you could also mask out the tower first as well, so that none of the tower is available to drag inward.  That's another method.

I'd be interested in how Fred and Terry did theirs.  Did they use masks?  Etc.  Because this one can be done with or without masks.

Mike

This is my rendition.  I took the time to take out a few other distractions.  Took me about 15 minutes including the few specs in the sky, dark power line top right, and the shadows bottom right.  I found it easiest to do this one without masks.  The only place I used a mask was the base of the tower where I wanted to retain the rock.

Mike

And Jeff,

Fred passed along your version.  It really wasn't bad at all for a first attempt!  From looking at it, I think the key is: don't be afraid to use larger radii on the vanishes to start.  That is, take off big chunks of the tower when starting, not worrying so much about any lines or squigglies that it creates in the clouds.  You can easily go back after the main portion is gone and smooth over any areas in the clouds with more vanishes on top.  That's how I did it.  Maybe I'll make a short video.

Mike

Hi Mike,
I used masks on the main part of the pylon. I don't think Fred did; I have his filter and there are no minus values.
Terry

This is the 8 minute video of me removing the tower.  As there are many ways to do this and this is by no means the only way, I just wanted to illustrate what I did:

https://youtu.be/IM9j6bqCC98

Mike

Terry,
Do you have the 4 minute flt file?
It is time stamped 5:26 am
There are at least 40 or more lines in the pixel box showing use of masks

Fred

I looked again and there is - negative radius values.
Terry

Thanks for that important clarification.  For several years now, one of my dirty little secrets has been my use of the blemish tool to remove facial hot spots - especially the small ones say at the tip of the nose, but sometimes even larger ones on the forehead.  I would always start at the center of the spot and drag out - worked wonderfully.  Obviously, with vanish, I will need to slightly adjust that technique  (I know, the real technique is to take better photos to begin with ;D)

Mel,
The blemish tool still works the same on zits and stuff.
Just like in my "Bloop Bloop" video

Fred

Thanks Fred - my bloops do have a Maryland accent though - - -

Well, what can I say except many thanks to all, and especially Mike, what a service, a personal video what ever next?

The video certainly gives me info about the use of this tool I would not have easily discovered.

I will be exploring and practising further when time is available.

I am in bad books with SWMBO, elected not to go out country walking today, I have a lot of gardening to do and more QU vanish to practice when I am after gardening  knackerd.

Thanks again to all.

Jeff   

Jeff,
With all due respect, have pity on us poor linguistically challenged "Yanks".

I even went to Google and asked for a translation.
It says FROM (language)  TO (language)
The to was easy. 'English'
The FROM part I had to leave blank.
Here's what I got

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/30-awesome-british-slang-terms-you-should-start-using-immediately.html

Fred

Jeff,
As long as you are not flogging a dead horse!
Terry

I am always knackered so I have plenty of practice time.

About 15 minutes work on this one, removed a large sign in the foreground and replaced the proper fill foliage

Fred

I wondered if that word is in common usage in Yanky Land

Jeff