Return To The 1960s
To apply a pop art effect, I opened this shot of a tiger (#5) in CS4, and chose Filter>Alien Skin Snap Art 2>Comics. If you like the default result, click OK. If you don’t, try one of the many other preset variations. Here, I went to the Basic tab (#6) and increased the Feature Size and Edge Strength. After rendering (#7) the animal is now totally screened with large color half-tone dots, and thick black lines have been drawn creating a striking, bright, colorful graphic.

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Control Realism In An Oil Portrait
SA2’s Oil Paint option should be quite popular with portrait and wedding photographers. To demonstrate, I chose a portrait of Kayla (#8). After choosing the Oil Paint style, I added a focus region over her face (#9). The new Focus Region tool allows you to selectively preserve detail in any area you choose such as the face, or even individual features such as eyes and lips. Using the controls at the upper left, you can add or delete regions as you wish. Here, I elongated the default focus circle into a tilted oval to best cover the subject’s face and preserve detail there. A powerful creative tool, the Focus Strength slider controls how realistic or painterly the area within the focus region is rendered. For the final “painting” (#10) I took the Focus Strength up to 93 to preserve detail in the face, while allowing the rest of the image to be rendered in more abstract brush strokes.

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Snap Art 2 sells for $199 with an upgrade price of $99 for registered users of Snap Art 1. For more information, contact Alien Skin Software at: www.alienskin.com.