Overview

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When an image is uploaded, the original image is automatically scaled and cropped to 320x200 for posting in how-tos. The ImageTuner lets you access the original image to do your own cropping, and provides additional image enhancement tools to highlight important details of your image.

The ImageTuner consists of three components: Crop Selection, Live Preview, and Image Enhancement.

Crop Selection

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On the left-hand side of the ImageTuner you can draw a box by click-and-drag to select the portion of your original image to crop to. By default, the largest central region that fits a "golden ratio" aspect ratio is selected. You can quickly select the default region by clicking "select maximum".

Live Preview

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The top right is the live preview - this is what the final image will look like.

Image Enhancement

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We provide a selection of filters to bring out the important details in your image. The filters are:

• Reduce Noise: (smart blur) Good for removing artifacts. This filter attempts to remove noise while retaining detail. Too much of this filter can make your image look artificial and airbrushed.
• Increase Depth: (tone curves) Darkens shadows and brightens highlights. Too much of this filter can hide important details.
• Enhance Contrast: (contrast stretching) Tends to turn washed-out images into crisp images, as if removing a haze. Technically, this filter ensures that the full dynamic range is covered.
• Increase Sharpness: (unsharp mask) This filter can bring out details using a digital version of an old photographic technique. Most images look better with one or two levels of sharpness, though too much sharpness tends to be distracting.

Finishing Up

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When you are satisfied, just click "apply". The new image will be uploaded, and the ImageTuner will close. Your browser may have a cached version of the image in memory, so you may need to refresh a few times to see the new image.