Before you fly into the wild unknown, get to know Satori’s main interface.  Five menu selection buttons - Paint, Geometry, Layer, Masking, and Canvas - dynamically toggle different control environments, each replete with scads of buttons for precision manipulation. Most of Satori’s features are exposed for easy access. NOTE: To save bitmap files in version 1.6 you must also include the file extension in the filename.

A vital tool in any graphics studio is the Clone brush. You can use it for a whole bunch of sensible reasons--or you can use it for completely gratuitous fun. First, open an image of a friend, mother-in-law, celebrity, whatever. Now, from the Paint menu click Clone. Next, with the cursor in the image window, press the right mouse button to bring up the Brush menu. Select Set Clone Offset and you’ll see the cursor turn into a rubber stamp. Place the rubber stamp over one of the subject’s eyes and click. Now move to the forehead (where you want the copy of the eye to appear) and press the left mouse button. You’ll notice that as you drag, a cursor is left at the source area and that a second cursor is created at the destination (Figure 2a). The cursors remain displayed and locked whilst you clone a third eye by "painting in" the source pixels in the destination area. The result (Figure 2b) is surreal, but it gets even weirder when you begin playing with Sharon’s ruby red lips (Figure 2c).

Human faces make ideal candidates for cloning shenanigans, because the uniformity of skin tone conceals where clone areas begin and end.

We’ve all arrived at a beautiful location only to find rain or insufficient light for a decent photograph. This snap of King’s College at Cambridge, for example, came out a bit drab (Figure 3). Fortunately, Satori’s Color Correction tool lets you adjust brightness, contrast, and component color values.

There are two ways to adjust colors--using sliders or using curves (curves give beginners easier-to-use, more sweeping control). Experiment with different settings until you hit the right mix, then click OK to finish.

While we’re in the business of improving this image, let’s replace the gray sky completely. Open the Masking menu, click Chroma and select the Include tab. This is where you pick colors to be included in the chroma-removal process (each of the colors in the swatch list will be zapped away). Set the Pick value and start picking those gray colors from the sky by clicking around inside the image window. When you think you’ve got enough, click Make Mask and a user mask will be generated from those colors selected. It’s almost certain that your first attempt will fail somehow--you probably won’t grab every single color to be masked--but you can refine your selection and vary the values for Range and Falloff (in the Chroma tab) until you’re happy.

.