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To get started editing your photos in Paint Shop Pro 8, click "Browse." This button looks like a file cabinet and is located in the toolbar at the top of the interface. On the left side of the browse window, navigate the folders on your hard drive where you have images stored. Double click the image within the browse window to open it.
Most photographs and scans are in very high resolution when they are first created. To work with them effectively, you must reduce the resolution to a more manageable size. To do this, click "Image," and then "Resize." If you plan to publish your images on the web, change the "Pixels Dimensions," so that the image is no more than 600 pixels on its longest side. If you will be printing your image, change the "Print Size" so that the dimensions are 4-by-6, 5-by-7 or 8-by-10 inches. If you cannot get these exact standard photo dimensions in the resize window, then resize the one end of the image to the largest dimension and crop the image on the other end to the smaller dimension.
It is important to lighten and brighten an image whether it seems too dark or not. Click "Adjust" and "Brightness and Contrast." Select "Brightness/Contrast" from the menu. Adjust the numbers in the dialogue box and preview your image by clicking the button with the image of an eye. Use the "Clarify" menu option instead if your image seems to have too little definition. Then select "Adjust," "Hue and Saturation" and "Hue/Saturation/Lightness" to fix problems with the color in your images. Beside "Edit" select the color you wish to change. If you want to change the overall color in an image, select "Master." Then move the sliders and click the preview button until your image looks right. Moving the "Saturation" slider will get you the best results in most cases. Most images need some increase in color saturation, although many images need a decrease in saturation, especially in the reds, the magentas and the yellows.
Use the "Crop" tool in the toolbar to change the framing of your image. Select an area by clicking and dragging your mouse over the image. Then click the blue check mark to complete the crop.
If your picture seems distorted, you may need to use the lens correction tool. The most common type of distortion makes the image look as if it is bulging forward and is caused by taking a picture from too short a distance. To resolve this problem, click "Adjust," "Lens Correction" and "Fisheye Distortion Correction." Set the "Field of View" to between 30 and 40 and press the preview button. Look at the image to see if the lens distortion has been corrected. Adjust the numbers until the image looks correct. -
The advanced tools in Paint Shop Pro take a little more work to use but are effective at improving your images. The select tool has several different functions. The regular selection tool defaults to selecting in a rectangle. In the Tools Options Palette at the top of the screen, you can also choose a different selection type, such as a square, an ellipse or a circle. Use the "Freehand Selection Tool," which looks like a lasso, to select irregularly shaped objects or areas within an image. You can also use other selection types with this tool, such as "Point to Point" and "Smart Edge" to make your freehand selection more easily and automatically. Use the "Magic Wand" tool to select an area automatically that is of a certain brightness or color value. Raise the "Tolerance" to make Paint Shop Pro select a larger area, or lower it to restrict the areas that you select. Press "Shift" while selecting to add to your selection and press "Control" to remove areas from the selection.
Another useful tool is the clone tool. Click on the tool that looks like two small people with an arrow. Right-click on the area you wish to copy. Then left click to draw on the intended destination. You can also clone images from one picture to another. However, the images should about the same size and should have the same basic color balance and lighting.
