Sarasota PC Monitor
Akvis Chameleon
A Software Review
bySharon Rump
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.AKVIS Chameleon is not a piece of software, but a plugin that can be utilized by several programs such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photo Elements, Jasc Paint Shop Pro and Ulead Photo Impact. It is described as image combination software and does an excellent job.
Once installed, this plug-in fits into the list of filters and is available to use while you are working on a project the same as other filters are used. As indicated by its name, Chameleon allows a selection to be melded into another image and takes on the colorization of the original image. The edges seem to disappear and softly become a part of the surrounding area where you have placed your selection. The selection will pick up the colors of the adjacent area. I had fun using the undo feature and moving my selection to different areas of the original picture and watching the magic of color changes based on the exact location of the selection.
To give Chameleon a test drive, I opened a picture that I had taken on vacation that had a group of people in it. There was one individual that was not in the original photo that I wanted to add so I opened another photo that had this person in but it was taken at a different location indoors and the lighting was completely different. The instructions given said that I need not be too precise about the selection process as during the conversion process, the edges will be softened and blend. This makes it so much easier to have the merged selection look like it belongs with the original. Chameleon seems to figure out what needs to be altered and does it so quickly.
The filter has two modes, standard and snapshot. In the standard mode the selection will blend into the background of the image that it is placed on and adjust the color/contrast of the selection and look like it was part of the original. In the snapshot mode it not only blends into the image, but it becomes a bit transparent and takes on the texture of the base image. Your imagination is the only limit to creating original projects such as collages that can fun to work with.
The website at http://akvis.com gives good examples of how the program performs and also lists their other filters that are available. Akvis Chameleon is available for download at that site and lists for $69. System requirements: Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, NT; Mac OS X, Pentium III (and more), at least 256 MB RAM, 15 MB of free space on the hard disk and an installed photo editor supporting plugins. :
Copyright 2005. This article is from the July 2005 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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