Magnifying Lens Plugin (Effect)

HI,
I want to be able to place a "magnifying lens" over a part of one of my pictures. I have searched the internet for such a plugin. They exist for Photoshop, but are of the "action" type.
I know that with layers, I could create a ring on a new layer, create a circular enlargement layer of the relevant portion of my picture and then put the three together, but this does not produce the optical distortion normally seen around the edges of the lens.

Is there such a plugin for PE2 or does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks,

John

John,

I know of no plugins.

Have you tinkered with the Bloat option of the Liquify filter?

Byron

Byron,

Thanks, I gave bloat a try, but I find it really difficult to make the bloated result retain the looks of the unmagnified person. The subtle distortions seem to create a new personage.

John

John if you have Windows I know this will work...maybe a different download for Mac. Go to Google...enter "Virtual Magnifying Glass for Windows" I have #155 and I see there is a newer one now I think. It is all free and if you keep icon
in the launch section of your task bar you can use for anything on your screen at any time. Really neat. Adjustable magnification and all!! Dorothy

Take a look at this page in the Adobe Studio Exchange. It's not exactly what you're looking for, but you might find it of interest anyway, because it will allow Elements to play some Actions.

< http://share.studio.adobe.com/axAssetDetailSubmit.asp?aID=75 16>

Do,

This is the idea that I want I, but I want it to be in one of my photoshop picture creations rather than just in Windows.

John

Have you tried something like this
a) duplicate the background layer
b) make an elliptical selection about 20% larger than you want the lens of the glass to be
c)invert the selection, and delete---- you should now have a basic image layer and a circular layer
d) run the spherize filter from the distort menu on the circle layer- this creates a spherical
distortion, which isn't quite the same as a convex lens, bit it looks pretty good.
d) use the transform to size the circle back down to the size you want the lens to be
e) line it up as closely as possible with the background layer. It doesn't have to be perfect,
as the frame will hide the transition
f) Go to layer style and find the "translucent glass button" style and apply it to the circular layer.
(this creates the highlights and shadows)
g) Go to the layers palette, double click on the "f" to th right of the layer name, You'll get a
dialog box. Increase the size of the bevel til it looks right to you
h) In a new layer, draw your ring for the frame of the glass, apply the one
of the chrome layer styles

Mazel tov. Have fun.

wrote in message

HI,
I want to be able to place a "magnifying lens" over a part of one of my

pictures. I have searched the internet for such a plugin. They exist for Photoshop, but are of the "action" type.

I know that with layers, I could create a ring on a new layer, create a

circular enlargement layer of the relevant portion of my picture and then put the three together, but this does not produce the optical distortion normally seen around the edges of the lens.

Is there such a plugin for PE2 or does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks,

John

John -

try this:

1-Make a circular selection around the area you want to magnify (hold <Shift> to keep it a perfect circle)
2-With the selection made, press <Ctrl>+<J> to put it on its own layer 3-Check ON the little "preserve layer transparency" icon at the top of the layers palette (with the new layer selected)
4-Go into Liquify, and choose the bloat tool
5-Bloat away!
6-add a stroke style to the circular selection to make it stand out a bit from the rest of the image - you could also create a selection (Click the circular bloated layer while holding <Ctrl> to make it a selection) and change the selection to "border" (Select>Modify>Border) and insert a value of 5 - 9 pixels, depending on your image size - now fill it with a color/pattern/bevel style to make it look like whatever you want it to look like....

**You could also Google for a magnifying glass image, resize/transform it to fit your bloat layer, and remove the glass part of the magnifying glass image - now it looks like there's a magnifying glass over your image, magnifying what's under it.

cheers!
<mike>
http://digiart.graficalicus.com
Vote now for October challenge entries!

Hi Mike,

You have suggested two good ideas for me to try.

Thanks,

John
PS: Great website!

no problem - & thanks!

--
<mike>
http://digiart.graficalicus.com
October challenge: "orange"