Barbur

So, how can I edit a picture like you do?

that’s a question I hear a lot lately.

well… the answer is a little complex,

it is not just the editing thing, a good picture combined from composition, lightning, the subject and more. yes, editing it the right way will also contribute.

So if you have all the above and just need the final touch I’m here to assist.

We’ll start by having the editing software, there are a lot of them, here we will focus on Picasa .

Go to this page, download it, install and come back, so we cam go and edit some pictures…

After installing the software double click on a picture you will want to edit.

At the left you will see 3 tabs: Basic Fixes, Tuning, Effects.

Let’s focus on Basic Fixes

Crop help us to focus on the subject or cut the image to our own needs like making it ready to print.

We can choose one of the standard print size or manual.

then we press on the picture and drag the mouse to a place we want it to end.

Pressing apply will crop the image to our desired one.

You have to pay attention to the original size of the image, if it is too small the cropped image will be grainy.

The next button is straighten, as it’s name it is for straightening the picture, for example you took a picture of the sea and the horizon is not straight, all you have to do is move the slide from one side to the other and “voila” it is straight.

Next is I’m Feeling Lucky it is for the lazy ones, one touch and the picture will be automatically fixed.

Same as this are the Auto contrast, Auto Color press it and the contrast and color will be automatically fixed.

The Fill light slider is for controlling the amount of light in the picture if the picture is dark just move it to the right.

Under all of the buttons there is the undo button for undoing the last thing you did.

We’ll move to the more advanced tab, the Tuning tube

At the Tuning tab there are 4 sliders that controls the lightning and the color.

The Fill light is the same as at the previous tab, it will make the picture darker or brighter.

Highlights will change the brightness of the highlights areas, you’ll have to pay attention when you move it to the right not to “burn” the image.

You can press on the button at the right to automatically brightness and the shadows.

The Shadows slider controls the brightness of the shadows, move it to the right and the shadows in the picture will be brighter.

Color Temperature will change the colors of the image to warmer or colder colors, it is effective when the white balance was not calibrated or when you want to change the “feeling” of the picture.

And at last the Netural Color Picker, press it and afterwards a white place on the picture and the white balance will be automatically fixed.

The Effects tab

Here you will find all the effects you can apply to your picture, when the most important one is the Sharpen effects, it will as it;s name sharpen you picture and is recommended to use on almost all pictures.

There are the cool effects like the Sepia and B&W that will give your picture an old look.

Warmify that will make the picture “warmer”.

Film Grain as it’s name maked the picture grained.

Tint will change the shades of the picture’s color.

Saturation will strengthen the colors of the picture, pay attention not to exaggerate…

Soft focus will make a circle around the picture that will make the area around it softer, good for portraits that you want the attention of the viewer at the face.

Glow will glow the edges of the picture.

Filtered B&W will change the shades of the picture to B&W by letting you choose them.

Focal B&W let us choose an area in the picture that will remain colored while the rest of the picture turn into B&W.

Graduated Tint will make graduated color along the picture.

Basic image editing

After all the explanation let’s make a basic image editing;

I took the image above after cropping it and moved the Fill light slider almost to the middle,

same with the highlights slide, the shadows slider a little bit to the right,

At the effects tab I made shrapen and pressed the saturation button, moved it a little to the right.

Pressed Focal B&W placed it in the middle of the couple.

Here are the original and the edited pictures:

If you want to add a frame to the picture go to this site.

Follow the instructions and you have a framed and edited image, all you have to do now is upload it to you flickr page or any other sharing site.

I’ll be more then happy to help in any question you have,

Good luck!