Welcome to PhotoChances !

PhotoChances is a large collection of photographic effects and filters, each with variable parameters having potentially a large number of possibilities. The program runs in two modes:

Slideshow mode: The program will show your digital photos with effects chosen randomly (the originals will stay untouched). During the slideshow you can capture and save the picture with the effect at its original size. When the program saves a picture it stores in the file the "recipe" used to generate the effect. Later, in the Lab mode, you can use that same effect in any other photographs.

Lab mode: Here you can load the "recipes" of the effects used in any picture you captured (simply opening the saved image  file or dragging it to the top zone of the lab window). Then you can choose any target images to apply that effect and save them. There are controls to additionally fine tune the effect. 

Optionally you can set the program in slideshow mode as the default screensaver.

If it's the first time you use the program here are the minimal tips to get started:

In the slideshow:

• Pressing the space bar in your keyboard will open the Lab window where you can capture the displayed (with the effect applied).
• The Enter key will open the Settings window. The first time you should set the folder(s) where are your photographs (in the tab "Image selection")
• Pressing The keys  ← → (left or right arrow) will pause the animation and allow to move trough the current segment either with the mouse or with the arrow keys optionally combined with Control, Alt or Shift. This way you can choose the exact point you want to capture. Pressing R will resume the animation.
• Right clicking the mouse will show a popup menu with the most frequent operations. Notice that each option shows the corresponding keyboard shortcut.
• By default the program will work with images in the folder "My pictures". If your collection of photographs or the ones you want shown are somewhere else you need to set their location: Press the Enter key and select the tab Image selection.

In Lab mode:

• The program installs sample recipes. Press the button Store of recipes near the top of the window and open the folder Samples to access and try them.
• Load the image you want the effects applied to either with the button "Load image" or simply by dragging an image file to the middle (gray) zone of the Lab window.
• When you have saved images with the program you can use the exact same photographic effects in other images very easily: Load the these effects by loading the image file in the upper zone of the Lab window either using the button "Load recipe in image" or dragging & dropping the file there.

In any mode pressing the key F1 will open this help system.

If you have any questions please contact: info@jttsoft.com