AKVIS Chameleon

AKVIS Chameleon is an efficient masking software for photo collage and montage creation. It is fun to use and makes the process easy and entertaining. The software does not require precise selection of objects. It combines images with entirely different color ranges with a few mouse clicks. Intelligent photo combination. Available as a standalone application and as plugin for image editors.

The software works in four modes:

Montage Mode. In this mode the program combines images to create a seamless photo montage. It transfers selected objects to a new background and makes the irrelevant parts of the pasted fragment fade away. The object does not change its color range or opacity, only its edges adapt to the new environment and get smoothed. This mode is good to use for creating photo collages with people (pasting a person into a new background).

Chameleon Mode. In this mode the program adjusts the pasted fragment to the target image color range and smoothes the object's borders. It looks similar to the way a chameleon adapts to the environment.

Blend Mode. In this mode the program does not only smoothen the borders of the pasted object and adjusts its color range, but it also makes the object semi-transparent, so that the texture and the relief of the primary image can be seen through. Use this mode if you want to "dissolve" the pasted image in the background.

Emersion Mode. In this mode, like in Montage mode, the program combines images to create a seamless photo montage. The difference between the two is that in Emersion Mode the pasted fragment does not overlay the background, but embeds into the background so that only certain parts of the fragment are visible. This mode allows making montages with difficult objects (trees, etc).

Note: I have tested masking programs and Akvis Chameleon was one of the best at selecting and masking fine details such as hair and feathers.