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Enhancing Images 2
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Imaging Software
Expensive Software certainly have their advantages. Usually it's the fine control you get with the different options that are available. For example: Lightroom 2 has a much better and finer control of colors in Images than my favorite Ulead's Photo Impact (now owned by Corel). But the software is more expensive and it's a bear to learn to use. It's just not intuitive at all. Photo Impact, Paint Shop Pro, or Photo Shop Elements could be a challenge for the person that wants to just go out and take pictures and doesn't want the hassle of enhancing the images all the time. In fact a lot of people just want to post them to on-line photo albums or e-mail them to friends or family, or put them on Facebook. But they still have to resize them, and maybe even crop them and fix the color. There's an easy alternative for the computer challenged photographers among us. Here's some options ------
Here are several web based photo albums which include the options to resize, and in some cases optimize the photos, and to store them for you and friends / family to view ----
Please be advised, there are some restrictions involved with the use of web based photo albums. They are free but have a limit - after which you'll have to pay for more storage room. Also some sites (most in fact) have a bad rating with the Web of Trust. What this means is this: If you have someone who wants to view the on-line album and they try to access it from a library or school or on a computer with rating software installed for kids -- they won't be able to see them.
Please be advised, there are some restrictions involved with the use of web based photo albums. They are free but have a limit - after which you'll have to pay for more storage room. Also some sites (most in fact) have a bad rating with the Web of Trust. What this means is this: If you have someone who wants to view the on-line album and they try to access it from a library or school or on a computer with rating software installed for kids -- they won't be able to see them.
Picasa.google You can color enhance, fix red eye, crop, Geotag your images Storage space is 1 gig. Nice options.
Photobucket You can easily save and resize photos and then link to them.
Storage space is 500 megabytes.
Storage space is 500 megabytes.
Flickr Store 2 videos or 100 megabytes, Photo enhancement available but not as easy to access as some of the others.
Want more control over your enhancement options - See Point & Shoot here on the site for a link to PaintShop Photo Pro X3.
Freeware
For those of you that don't want to spend hours manipulating your photos and only want to resize them and want to do it easily, here's just what your looking for.
IrfanView Resize and adjust colors automatically, plus other enhancements like changing a photo to Sepia, Black & White, make a button, blur, and many more options. Very easy program to use and it's free. You can also install plugins and dowload and install lots of different filters.
For those of you who want ease of use but want a software that also has more options that you can learn to use as you progress with it. Here's three freeware programs that will also fill that need.
Gimp This an open source software that works easily, is very intuitive, and yet has options that only very expensive imaging software offer. Great software to start off with if your going to want more options available as you grow into the photography field.
Paint.net This is the same software as Microsoft's Paint, except that it is still evolving. Originally designed by a University with Microsoft's help -- the original developers are now improving it. We used it years ago and it was good then. The new improved version is available here. Windows users only.
Web based Applications
Smilla Enlarger Although this software is only for enlarging photographs it is included
here as a freeware. It works really well and is easy to use.
here as a freeware. It works really well and is easy to use.
IrfanView Example
Although IrfanView is one of the smallest programs with the least options available -- it really does work great. Here is the same photo of the Desert Tortoise. We just clicked on Auto Adjust Colors and the program did an excellant job of correcting the colors. There are a lot of other options available.
Here's the finished product, resized and color corrected.
Return to PAGE 1 of Enhancing Images.
11/09/09 Protecting your images on the web. Myths and Information.
11/09/09 Composition - Rule of thirds Is it always necessary? Other issues.
11/15/09 HDR High Dynamic Range What is it? How to. Best software
12/10/09 Saving your Photographs So you won't lose them!
01/11/10 Resizing, Optimizing, Saving Your here!
01/25/10 Replacing the Sky in Photos Fixing a drab looking sky.
01/31/10 Photographing Desert Flowers Ideas for great photos, tips & tricks.
02/18/10 Printing your photos How to and other options.
N/A Cleaning the Camera, Lenses Important - How to; correctly!
Other photography articles of interest on this site.
The free softwares listed above really do work well, however if you want all the advantages of a better software with all the bells and whistles then think about spending a small amount of money on Corel's Paintshop Photo Pro X3 or Adobe's Photoshop Elements. You won't be sorry, and it'll be rewarding knowing that you've made your photos look even better.