Essentially the only app I use for image alterations. And a quick guide of it's abilities and how to use it.

 

I have been asked a number of times how I alter photos in certain ways by a number of people. And when I go to show them the app I use, I find they will often abandon it, for more mainstream sources, that might be easier to use, but I don't feel like offer quite as much features, for free.

So I wanted to show the one app I use for pretty much all my image alterations, and even a little quick introduction on certain parts, and how they can be used. Hopefully this will help break through the semi advanced technical aspects of this app, and allow others to use it with as much ease and function, as I do. Don't ask why, but I've even been able to create things like cash app screenshot deposits, with so much perfection, that I've sent it to some of my friends, with a "500$ deposit" with proper font, perfect alignment, and time stamps. With so much accuracy, you can see their eyes light up, just before they realize nothing actually showed up. And that is tricking those who know what to look for in forged deposits, lol. I won't cover this though. Afraid it's probably a bit illegal haha. But it is possible. You'll have to figure that out on your own though.

First off this is the app we will be covering. >>

And just to give you an idea of it's versatility, have you noticed my logo? Well would you believe me, if I told you it's 100% original. Custom built by me, from the ground up. And I actually built this logo from fully hand drawn images, that i took a picture, using my camera. And then used different features, and multiple layers, to create the logo that I currently use? Not only that, but
if you notice, it's actually a sticker logo, that I can stick absolutely anywhere. Check it out. 

As you can see above. I simply went and took a screenshot of  Youtube, and stamped my personal logo on it. All available with this one app. I know this function isn't necessarily exclusive. But let me say again, this app is 100% free. And not to mention. I've yet to show you the hardcore evidence that will show you for certain, this logo is fully hand drawn by me. Just so happens, I ended up saving each piece as I built this, and used this app, to compile all the individual pieces that were used in it's creation. And you'll find them all still in their pen and paper format.

As you can see to the left, you've got the cross I drew, the point I drew(then duplicated), the outline of the eye, and the inner pupil and iris. Once again, stacked and multiplied, and finally the tear drop, with a glare, that I'm honestly not sure I even used lol. I took these pictures, used this app to digitize them, and then began stacking in a design that I liked and felt was unique to my style. Then cut it up into a sticker. Pretty cool right? This app is actually great for personal logo builds if you want to use it for that. But I'm about to get into it's picture abilities as well.

So for the rest of this post, we're going to use one picture that I found while surfing the interwebs. This one!!

Mainly because I like the doggy. Lol, and also the different layers that I can easily identify before doing anything to the picture. It just looks like a pretty good example to use to show these things. 

So first off, let's take this picture. And let's say we didn't like the color, or visibility of the frisbee. Specifically the frisbee. Everything else is just fine. So let's begin to make desired changes using this app! So to begin, what we will need to do is first layout this picture for this background. And then we will layout a second one, right on top of it. We'll end up with something that looks like this at first.

As you can see here, I've got my primary laid, background picture. And on top of it, there's the same picture, with some tools available to quickly use. These can increase width, height, overall, change angle, and etc. But right now we're just going to make sure the right image is selected. Which is easily confirmed in the left column if you look.

 And then we're simply going to press "fit", down at the bottom. This will match the image's size for a perfect fit. In this case, since we're using the same picture, it will simply match the first picture we laid down. So now things will begin to shape up like this, below.

Almost like we are back at square one. But not quite. The difference is, if I pressed "cut" and began removing chunks of the image, then the image below will fill in the gaps perfectly. You wont even be able to realize that any of the top image is removed. However, repeat this process with that image, and you will notice. And considering we're on the subject, that is the immediate tool I will be grabbing.

Now if you remember, we are not happy with the frisbee. We want to change it. So let's select the top picture, and use "cut" on the bottom of the tools area. You'll see something like this pop up. 

Here we have different cutting tools. Manual can be as exact as you want it to be. And depending on the task, very time consuming. Unfortunately it's sometimes a necessity, depending on certain factors. Which I'll soon cover. There's also repair, which is probably obvious of it's function. If you remove too much, you can put it back. There is also "magic" which can be a pretty cool tool, that helps remove certain color differences that it detects you want erased. It's a manual type of process, but removes chunks of a central area. For example, if I picked it, then started running over the ground on the bottom. It would probably automatically cut me off when I reach the clouds, unless I pushed too far over. But for now, we will be able to use "auto". Which will be no problem in this case, but you need to be careful with it. You notice the slide above? That's it's wipe out range. The higher the slide, the more color it will cut. A high range will cause it to remove things like purple, black, and other very dark colors, if you select one of these dark colors. However, it will always cut off at the change color mark. But a lower range, might allow you to remove only purple and leave the other colors. Even if  they are touching. Ultimately it's easiest to use this scale, when maxed. So this time we will do that. Let's begin to cut out our frisbee.

And boom. With auto, you can see, we quickly wiped out the blue sky surrounding everything. We can repeat this on the ground, dog, clouds and background as well if we so desire. However I wish to cover a bit more ground before just chopping this picture up, so instead, let's take a look at the manual cut real quick. As you can see when, when I do this type of cut, I can zoom in as much as I want to make things easier. In fact this works with any of the tools, but it's most useful here.

You once again may notice the slide. This time it dictates size of the cut though. So from here we can make all the precision removals we desire. But let's skip ahead a little bit, and get to a more cut picture.

And here we are. You'll see now, I have only the dog and the frisbee. Why the dog and the frisbee, if we only want to change the frisbee? Well you'll find it good practice, to probably save spots like this as you learn. Because from here, I can easily cut one or the other out. And in future changes, we will want the dog to be the focus. By saving it here, we can quickly access him for later. But as first intended. Let's grab our frisbee.

And as intended. Our individual frisbee. Ready for alterations to our desire. Now if you notice that "Bgcolor" button, on the bottom left. That's to change the background color. Click this a few times, to make sure you haven't left behind any unwanted parts. It will be easier to see. But now, we go back to our primary picture!!

Yep. Looks the same doesn't it? Lol, not quiet. For the super observant, they probably noticed, our left column looks a little different. Because now it has the cut picture, instead of the normal one, we first inlayed. So now from here, we will once again select the top picture. But this time, we want to use the "color" tool. Once again on bottom.

This will pop up. Now these slides can make some drastic changes, so take them slow until you get better at using them. Or don't! Lol, you can make some crazy stuff. But right now were in control of our frisbee. So lets adjust these slides to begin making color changes! Now I didn't want to flood this part with a load of pictures. So I have already used these slides, and made different color changes, and then put the different pictures, into one single picture so you can see. Bet you won't guess what app I used to pull it off so quick....

As you can see. I've already got 4 different pictures. All identical. EXCEPT FOR THAT PESKY FRISBEE!! And if you know how to use these slides, you can hit just about any color you want. And as long as you've got one piece secluded, that's all that will be effected. For instance, remember when we saved the dog? What if I decided he was an alien?

Now we've got an alien mutant dog! That simple. But this app can do more than color changes. What if the focus of our picture, wasnt the dog and his frisbee at all? But the background instead? Well then, we can take our picture, and now cut out the dog and his frisbee. Pulling only the back, and also having our past picture from the dog project. We will begin to layer these pictures. Now you may have noticed in the color slides, there was also a "blur" setting. What we will want to to do is, keep making our dog more and more blurry, until he's where we want, and do the opposite with the background. Now sometimes this process can take a few repeat steps, so we're going to skip that, and get straight to the result.

Now you'll find the background to be more crisp, while the dog is blurred out of focus. You can do this with any aspect of any picture. And this essentially covers all the basics of my favorite image tool. It can do some impressive things, if you have the mind to imagine how to put it together. It definitely takes a bit of practice to get the full hang of it. But hopefully this will help. You'll find another setting i did not cover here as well. "Shadow". This is because it works a lot like the color slides, but is used to create an offset duplicate "shadow" image of whatever you have selected. Then you can make it as blurry or crisp as you wish. With this set of advice, you'll quickly be able to transfer how to use it easily. With this app, the only limit you may end up finding is your imagination. I mean, look at my logo. How many of you would have ever guessed, "100% hand drawn from paper"? all it takes is a little tinkering, some practice on how things work. And you can do nearly anything to your pictures. 

Some quick tips I might say for closing. If you want to maintain your "fit" screen to work easiest. Then crop photos added on, by only moving the top and bottom. Do not move the sides. Or vise versa. Doing this you can easily and quickly replace things like, say... Fonts!... with little to no effort at all. Hitting the size perfect! But, I think I should probably leave that comment where it lay, and not mention it any more. ;) Lol. Remember, I'm showing you this for artistic ability, and nothing else!! Lol. Have fun....

Maybe you like what I can do with this app, and want me to create a personal logo build for you, with a few specific requests involved? If you want me to see what I might could cook up for you. Visit my other page.

http://self-taught-development.42web.io/?i=1

And feel free to get in touch! We'll try to work something out :). Feel free to bring what others estimate the job for as well. That way I can immediately undercut them ;).