How to Edit Your Pictures for Free
It used to be you had to visit a darkroom in order to edit your pictures, which required a lot of time and financial investment. However, with the recent proliferation of digital photography, not only can you develop your own pictures, you can also edit them. If you just want to make simple edits to your photographs and don't feel the need to invest in photography software such as Photoshop or Lightroom, there are a number of options to consider.
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Instructions
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Upload your photos into a free picture-sharing program such as Google Picasa, Photoscape or Flickr (see Resources). These programs let you organize, edit and share your photos without having to purchase any software. Create an account, install the software if there is any, and follow the instructions to create your own picture albums.
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After uploading your pictures, begin editing. Picasa offers a range of editing tools, including red-eye correction, resizing, cropping, color correction, lighting, contrast, and other effects that allow you to add highlights, shadows and perform advanced color and light corrections.
Photoscape is another free photo-editing software that includes all the functions of Picasa plus the options of adding text and drawing pictures as well as filters such as mosaic mode and blooming.
Flickr is more for organizing and sharing photos and cannot be used to edit extensively. -
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Other programs offer more extensive editing options. Splashup is a free online program that can edit pictures using layers. Most free editing programs don't offer the option of using layers to edit, which is a primary function of costly programs such as Adobe Photoshop. Splashup was designed to be a Photoshop lookalike that offers many of its features, including layers, layer effects, filters and brushes.
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Picnik works with other online photo sites such as Picasa and Flickr to allow you to share photos between programs and make edits you couldn't otherwise make. Picnik offers special effects that allow you to make simple tweaks to your photos. Specializing in creative and unique effects, Picnik is a simple program. A premium version of Picnik with more features can be purchased for $24.95 a year.
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Tips & Warnings
Save your edited photos under a different name than the originals; you may want to go back and work with the originals.
If you are going to be editing a large number of pictures or making substantial edits to a variety of pictures, you may want to invest in professional-grade photography editing software such as Adobe Photoshop.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit stock photo submissions (original digital drawing) image by Stephen Jacoby from Fotolia.com
