How to Edit a Digital Picture
So you want to know how to edit your digital photos. Whether using a Windows-based PC or a Macintosh computer, the most powerful piece of software for photo editing is no doubt Adobe Photoshop. However, this program requires a bit of expertise to use and its hefty price tag may be a turn-off for the casual user. The good news is that there are other options, and they're free.
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Instructions
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PC
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Right click on your digital photo. Scroll down to Open With. Choose Paint.
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Crop your photo. Cropping means cutting out unnecessary background from around your photo's subject, so that there is nothing to distract the eye from the subject. Click the tiny boxes on each of the corners and drag them around until you reach the desired photo crop. You can crop in from each of the sides and the top.
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Change your photo's size. You can do this by clicking the Image menu, then select Stretch/Skew. From here you can increase or decrease the size of the photo by percentages.
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Cut out just a piece of the photo. On the drawing toolbar, select the rectangular tool and draw a rectangle around the area you want to remove. Click the Edit menu, then Cut. Then click File and New to start a new file. Click Edit, then Paste to paste your selection. This gives you an image of only the piece of photo that you cut.
Mac
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Download and install Paintbrush for Mac. Unlike PCs with Windows, Macs do not come with installed editing software, but Paintbrush can be downloaded for free. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete installation. Open Paintbrush. Click File and Open. Search for your photo and open it into Paintbrush.
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Resize and crop your picture using the functions in the Image menu. From here you can stretch or skew your photo, make it bigger by stretching it, or make it smaller.
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Cut out just a piece of the photo. On the drawing toolbar, select the rectangular tool and draw a rectangle around the area you want to remove. Click the Edit menu, then Cut. Then click File and New to start a new file. Click Edit, then Paste to paste your selection. This gives you a new image of just the piece of the original photo that you cut out.
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Tips & Warnings
Always make a copy of your original photo image and make your changes only to the copy. That way, you'll still have your original photo to go back to if you need to start over.
There are many other adjustments you can make to your photo in Paint or Paintbrush than those described; for example, you can zoom in on your subject's eyes and eliminate red-eye by selecting the pupils of the eyes and filling them with black. Play around with the program you have to see what interesting effects you can create.
Another free image editing program that operates similar to Photoshop is the open-source GIMP program. It is available for both PC and Mac.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Portable digital photo camera. Isolated on white. image by diter from Fotolia.com
