Whitening Teeth In PSP

Everybody wants a whiter smile. Sometimes, no matter how much you brush your teeth, they just do not come out as bright as you want them to during a photo opportunity. This can be embarrassing and keep you from sharing photos with your friends and family. However, by using Paint Shop Pro, you can whiten teeth in any photo and create that bright, white smile you crave before sharing your pictures with the world.

Paint Shop Pro uses a Toothbrush Tool. However, it is very limited. It has one setting: Strength. It may be able to solve some whitening problems, learning how to whiten teeth through more advanced methods might be the better way to clean up a picture to your liking. This tool changes the pixels of an image, and that can cause problems editing other areas down the line. Whenever making changes like this, you want to do everything in your power to avoid editing the other areas of the picture. Make sure to save a backup copy of your picture in case you need to start over from scratch or are unhappy with the overall result.

First, you will want to select the Magic Wand Tool. Since teeth are oddly shaped, it is the best way to select the area you need to whiten. The tool works by comparing pixels near the selected area and choosing the ones that fit closely together as opposed to the normal Selection Tool that selects everything you click and drag. For teeth, you want the Magic Wand Tool to be on its default settings and you want the Match Mode set at Traditional. Begin at 25 to 35 for the Tolerance Mode.

Since you only need to work with one layer when whitening teeth, you can set the Use All Layers option to off but make sure the Contiguous option is on. That way you will not accidentally affect areas outside the teeth. Begin selecting teeth with the Magic Wand Tool, and any areas that are left out should just be clicked on after the fact until you have selected the entire area needing whitening.

Zoom in to see if other areas have been selected that you could not see further area. If this is the case, change the Tolerance Mode level to something lower and click the edges where it has gone past the teeth. Continue to zoom in and out until you are happy with the entire selection. When you save, go to Selections, then Load/Save Selection followed by Save Selection to Alpha Channel. Name it something easily remembered in relation to what you are doing. If you need to load it later, you can go to Selections, then Load/Save Selection followed by Load Selection from Alpha Channel.

Next, soften the edges of the selection to make the process less noticeable. Go to Selections, then Modify, Feather and enter in a one before clicking okay and exiting the menu. From there, make sure the selection is the active layer, then go to Layers, New Adjustment Layer and Hue/Saturation/Lightness. Begin by sliding the Saturation slider lower, this will remove color from the teeth. Try setting it at -50, then bring the Lightness slider up to begin the brightening process. Set it at 15 and see what it does. These numbers can be tinkered with depending on the work that needs to be done.

You want to make the smile brighter but without it being noticeable to someone looking at the picture. Every picture you whiten teeth in will react to different settings, no two pictures will have the same look. So, you want to learn how different slides will change the teeth coloring to the most natural look that blends in with the rest of the picture. Sometimes you may find that the picture may not react well to whitening and others times it may be very easy to find the best fit. Only by experimenting with different combinations will you find the best fit for your picture and teeth.

You can continue to change the settings until you have the results you are looking for. Since you have two layers in this single image, you can easily edit the selection without changing the overall picture, and this can help out later down the line if you need to make more changes. Just make sure to choose the correct layer to work on. If you do not want to make any further changes, you can merge the two layers into one or change the opacity level of the layers to make them blend into one another. Either way, you can still tinker around with the image to get the overall result you were looking for from the start.

Whitening teeth has never been easier with Paint Shop Pro. The sooner you learn how to use layers and different tools to correct problems, the quicker it will be to touch-up photos and begin sharing them with family and friends. They do not even have to know you removed red eye, whitened teeth or made other changes.