CYBIA FOTOMATIC NIGHTSCOPE

I love Cybia filters!   There is so much that you can do with Cybia Filters beyond their initial purpose.

Introduction to Cybia FOTOMATIC Nightscope
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NightScope Filters - as described on Cybia's website.
Low-Light Enhancement
A single Photoshop compatible plug-in filter for adding a basic "night-vision" effect to your digital photographs and/or 2D and 3D computer-generated images.

It first removes all colour from the picture and gives a very slight blur to indicate the camera is trying hard to focus in a low-light situation. Then you can choose to add grain either keeping it B&W or mixing separate red, green and blue channels to vary the effect.

You can also produce a strong overall colour cast using the RGB sliders provided. Works best with dark night-time photographs that have minimal areas of bright background elements in the scene.

Unless I actually sit down & play with a new filter (sometimes for hours), I don't understand what it does and how it can be applied to my own work. Tutorials often call for filters that I'll use once or twice before it becomes one of unused hundreds in my plugin folder. Even when I read the author's description, view their screenshots, most of the time I won't have any idea of how to apply it to my own work.

My suggestion to any PSPer who downloads and installs alot of filters is to open a handful of photos and start playing with one set of filters, such as Cybia. Sometimes, the effect is instant with the first photo and default settings and you yell "Eureka!"!  Oftentimes, you won't know why the filter was installed or what it did but suddenly, you have a work of art.

Other times it takes changing settings, changing photos and even deciding that it's not the filter you want to work with. So...Try another filter from the same set. Retry the first one later with a different photo or mindset. The idea is to PLAY and explore and experiment and discover what the filter can do for your work. Make notes, take screenshots and save your presets if the option is written into the plugin so that you can reapply the filter to something else.  I've written tuts on how to apply a filter, but have to refer back to the tut to remember what I did. I write tuts as much for me as I do for the group.

Playing with Nightscope, I was struck by the 'haunted' effect I got when I applied it to a winter tree photo. I thought it would be excellent for a halloween effect. Now, if I can just remember this come next fall.

Another effect I loved when applying Nightscope to a top layer is the look of a faded text book print.

Bridge photo found on Morguefile.com - The old bridge at the Buenos Aires Zoo - Argentina

For this effect, I duplicated the background layer and applied Nightscope to the top layer using the settings below.

I lowered the opacity of the Nightscope layer to 58%, merged my visible layers and added a simple frame.

By now I can hear you saying, "OK, lets cut to the chase. So I can do photos that way, and there's a rare occassion that I'll want to present a photo in a project. But how do I apply Nightscope filter to a tag or something else I can use?"

Remember - the purpose of any tut is to learn HOW to apply your tools.  You're not expected to do an exact duplicate of the tut writer's example, unless you want to. I will explain how I did the tag at the top of the page. You may use my images - I took both photos and prepared them for this tut - or you can choose your own.

Raining in My Heart

User Skill Level: Advanced Beginner to Intermediate.
I try to write tuts so that they can be done by the beginner if they follow the instructions but I did not include screenshots for the tools or describe how to do the text in detail .

Materials needed:
PSP - I'm used PSP v.9 Any version from 7 to 11 should work just fine.
- FOTOMATIC - Nightscope
Background photo of your choice.
Cat tube or any tube of your choice.
Text file of your verse to add later.

You can download my materials here.

Open your background photo and tube.

Duplicate the layer and work with the top layer.

Apply Cybia Nightscope to the layer using these settings.

Make sure you are working on the Nightscope layer.
Using the lasso tool with the settings below, outline the fence.
Delete the selection to expose the colored fence below.

Lower the opacity to the Nightscope layer to about 90% so just a little color from the background shows through.

Here's where saving even bad photos comes in handy. I got so little detail in the photo of this cat on a fence that I almost deleted it. Instead, I tubed it for the silhouette. And it worked well in this project.

Copy the cat tube. Paste it as a new layer over your background image. Use the mover tool to put him where you want along the top of the fence. You can use the raster deform tool to slightly adjust the angle so his feet align on top of the fence.

Add your text or verse.

Add a new layer to the top of the layer palette.
Use the rectangle selection tool to draw a large rectangle on the left side of your canvas.

Select a light color from your background image. I used #c7dcfd
Floodfill your selection with the light color, then lower the opacity to 75% or less so that the background and cat show through the rectangle.

Select none.

Before you add your verse to fit inside the rectangle, open the text in Notepad, make sure it's written correctly, and then select it and copy it again.  It's alot easier than trying to re-type it all.  Using Notepad will soft break your lines without html formatting and makes PSP text much easier to work with.  You also avoid typos by proofing your verse in Notepad first.

Text Tool:
Choose your font and size, (I chose a plain font, size 12, foreground and background colors were black.) Set the colors you want in the material palette and when the text box opens, right click > Paste.

While the text is higlighted, you can adjust the text size, size of the stroke, colors, etc.
Click Apply.
Use the nodes on the box outline to resize your text to fit the rectangle.

Choose a fancier font, larger size to add a title or caption or your name to the light space over the top of the cat.

When you are satisfied with your lineup, merge visible and add a border or a light frame to close your tag.

I hope this tut was fun for you to do and that you learned enough about the plugin to come up with alot of ideas to use Nightscope with.

vetch