Photo Graphical Software Tips
Whether you use a Digital Camera
or scan in 35 mm photos there is software readily available to help you make the images look good. You can resize them to send in e-mails or blow them up to be printed professionally and framed. Software standards such as Photoshop, Fireworks, and others are beyond the scope of everyday users in our view. They simply have so many variables to manipulate it becomes overwhelming. Many have a steep learning curve that simply does not fit into one’s harried schedule. Here is a list of common tasks you need your computer to do for you:
- Import images: If you have the latest operating systems such as Windows XP or similar for a Mac, this translation becomes easy. The operating system will identify your camera or scanner and allow you to browse images, this means multiple images are shown to you as thumbnails. You can then click on them to enlarge them. This is a good example of an image that lost much clarity upon resizing.
- One Step Enhancement: Select photo and first do an auto enhancement. Here the software runs a number of procedures on the photo based upon its assessment of need. You may or may not like what is does to the photo. The photo below is the original.
- This photo was auto enhanced by the software and I sharpened it additionally using one of the many options from the Effects menu. You can see it was brightened, removing some unwanted shadows.
- I see there’s some background clutter on the upper left and I will use the CROP or TRIM tool to cut out parts of the image to balance it or reduce clutter.
- After I have made all the adjustment and I think it looks OK, I will resize it depending upon what I want to do with the photo. In this example I am reducing the resolution to 72 pixels/inch which will obscure it somewhat but make it useful for websites. I can counteract this by using the “sharpen” or “sharpen more” command. Much above this resolution will cause a web page to load too slowly. I will also experiment with less than 72, maybe 45, to see what I can get away with when resizing images. Don’t be dismayed if it takes awhile to get decent results. It is one of the trickier aspects of the whole digital process.
Another tip: If you have an excellent digital image save it as a “tiff”, “png”, or “psd” file and do your resizing in one of these formats. Don’t worry about what they mean. Trust me on this one. These formats maintain the resolution far better than the common “jpg” or “gif” format to which your software will default. Once the resizing is done, then save it as a jpg. If you wish to have a professional photo lab process the image, use the “jpg” format. They will often make it look better as a finished photo than it will look on your computer screen.
Photo Editing Software
Not all photo editing software is made the same. Many are difficult to learn. The easiest, most intuitive I have found is Paint Shop Pro. I have tried over a dozen and keep coming back to this for simplicity and results. For more information you can download a free trial of this tool by simply typing in the software title in a search engine.
- The key tools typically used are: Auto Enhance (or similar), Effects (sharpen, etc.) Crop (Trim), and Resize.
- If I want clarity and a larger image I can save it - as is (as a very large file, over 500 KB) and copy it (burn it) to a CD. I could then take it to a photo shop for printing or I can send the image to one of several online processors who will get the image quickly and process it per my instructions. They will send my the processed photo back on quality photo paper in a few days.
- An alternative is to become familiar with the “sharpen” or “clarify” effect available with any good digital software. Don’t over do it, it will reduce the resolution, but one “shot” of sharpen will generally make the photo look sharper.
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