Editing a Photo

  1. Cropping
    1. Make Selection
      1. Edit>Trim Selection
  2. Color Correction
    1. Picture>Levels
      1. Histogram
        1. Auto
        2. Upper Slider
        3. Lower Slider
        4. Before/After Views
    2. Picture>Brightness/Contrast
      1. Brightness/Contrast
      2. Saturation
      3. Hue
  3. Resize
    1. Picture>Size
    2. The Scale Window
      1. Changing size
  4. Photo Resolution
    1. Picture>Resolution
  5. Rotating the image
    1. Picture>Rotate
  6. Unsharp Masking
    1. Effect>Plug-In Filter>Unsharp
  7. Adding Text
    1. Double click on the Text Tool in the Tool Bar
    2. The Text Window will appear.
      1. Choose the Font.
      2. Choose the Font Size, Alignment and Style.
      3. Anti-aliasing smooths out the edges of the text.
    3. Select the Color Selector (The block at the bottom of the Tool Bar).
    4. The Color Picker Window appears.
    5. Click on the Photo where you want the text to appear.
      1. Type the text.
      2. If the box isn't big enough, drag a corner to make it bigger.
      3. Click off the Text Boox to set the text in the picture.
  8. Saving
    1. Be sure to select the format you wantin the Format selector.
    2. Formats
      1. GIF
      2. TIFF
      3. JPEG
      4. PICT for Mac
      5. BMP for Windows
    3. Compression
  1. Cropping

    2. Cropping a picture removes the unwanted part of an image.
    1. Make Selection

      2. Use the Rectangular Selection tool in the Tool Bar to select the part of the image you want to keep.
      1. Edit>Trim Selection

  2. Color Correction

    3. GraphicConverter provides many options for changing the photo.
    1. Picture>Levels

      2. The "Levels" command allows you to change the Brightness and Contrast information in the photo from the whitest hightlights to the darkest shadows..
      "Brightness" refers to amount of white in the picture and "Contrast" refers to the amount of black.

      1. Histogram

        2. "Levels" lets you view the information in a histogram that shows the distribution of dark and light pixels

        1. Auto

          2. Automatically moves the sliders so the darkest part of the picture is black and the lightest is white.
        2. Upper Slider

          3. Moving the right slider to the left adds more white to the picture.
          Moving the left slider to the right adds more black, heightening contrast.
          Moving the middle slider affects the midrange values.
        3. Lower Slider
        4. Before/After Views
    2. Picture>Brightness/Contrast

      3. This is another way to adjust brightness and contrast in the image. It also gives access to Hue and Saturation controls.

      1. Brightness/Contrast

        2. This gives control over brightness, contrast and hue for each of the red, green and blue color channels in a photo.

        In the picture below, the slider bars have been linked together so the red, green and blue values are adjusted at the same time to the same level.

      2. Saturation

        3. Adjusts the amount of gray in the picture.

        Below, the Saturation slider is moved all the way to the left and changes the photo to black and white.

      3. Hue

        4. Adjusts the wavelength of the color in the picture.

        Duotone pictures are made by first sliding the Saturation bar to the left and then adjusting the Hue sliders to the tone desired.

        Below, the katydid is now blue.

  3. Resize

    4. Different outputs require different image sizes. For instance, pictures for the web should be made as small as reasonably usable for faster downloading.
    1. Picture>Size


    2. The Scale Window

      1. Changing size

        2. If the "Keep Proportions" box is checked, changing one dimension will automatically change the others. For instance, change the Width to 50% and the other dimensions will change on their own.
  4. Photo Resolution

    5. Resolution is a very important issue in digital imaging.
    Most cameras take pictures at 72 pixels per inch because that is what the computer screen can show. (96 ppi for PCs).

    This will create a blocky print at anything but the smallest size.

    Epson recommends the resolution of an image to be 240 ppi for photo quality printing on glossy paper.

    1. Picture>Resolution

      2. Changing the resolution without checking the "Convert Picture" box will resize the image. An image from a Sony Mavica at 480 X 640 will appear to be6.7 X 8.9 inches at 72 ppi. At 240 ppi (the resolution Epson recommends), it will be 2 x 2.7 inches.

  5. Rotating the image

    6. Use to rotate an image to its final position.

    If you shoot in the Portrait mode, the pictures come into the computer on their side so they need to be rotated.
    Pictures can also be rotated in the "Browse Folder" window.

    1. Picture>Rotate


  6. Unsharp Masking

    7. Use this to remove the jaggies and clean up the picture. It is very useful before printing images.
    1. Effect>Plug-In Filter>Unsharp


  7. Adding Text
    1. Double click on the Text Tool in the Tool Bar

    2. The Text Window will appear.
      1. Choose the Font.
      2. Choose the Font Size, Alignment and Style.
      3. Anti-aliasing smooths out the edges of the text.


    3. Select the Color Selector (The block at the bottom of the Tool Bar).


    4. The Color Picker Window appears.

      5. I like to use the Crayon Box.
      Choose the color for the text.

    5. Click on the Photo where you want the text to appear.
      1. Type the text.
      2. If the box isn't big enough, drag a corner to make it bigger.
      3. Click off the Text Boox to set the text in the picture.

  8. Saving

    9. I recommend using the "Save As..." option and keeping the original photo unchanged. Every time a JPEG is saved it loses some information so open the picture, work on it, use "Save As..." to create a new version of the file and the original doesn't change at all.

    1. Be sure to select the format you wantin the Format selector.

      2. If the "Save web ready (without resource box) is checked then the image will not have a preview or anpicture icon created. This will reduce the file size for images that will be on the web.
    2. Formats

      3. I highly recommend the Graphics 101 Tutorial at CNET.com for a very useful introduction to image file formats, compression and web graphics.
      1. GIF

        2. Graphics Interchange Format created by Burroughs (Unisys) for Compuserve. It uses 256 (8 bit) color and it is lossless compression.
        Usually used for solid color graphics on the Internet.
      2. TIFF

        3. Tagged Image File Format is a lossless format that saves the most information about a picture. It is recommended by many imaging professionals as the format of choice for working with images.
        TIFF files are very large and takes up lots oft storage space.
      3. JPEG

        4. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group.
        It uses millions of colors and lends itself to photographs.
        It uses lossy compression and each time a JPEG is resaved it loses more information in the picture.
      4. PICT for Mac

        5. PICT is the true color format for the Mac. Files are large and, once upon a time, it was the only format the Mac recognized.
      5. BMP for Windows

        6. The true color format for Windows and OS2 machines.
    3. Compression

      4. Compression is a way to reduce the file size of an image by using special algorithms.
      Some methods lose some image information as they compress the file. This is called "lossy" compression.
      When no information is lost, it is called "lossless" compression.
      GIF is a "lossless" format and JPEG is a "lossy" format.
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