Foto Fixin' - using Picasa and Photoshop Elements to enhance your vacation pictures

Coloring a Black and White Photo

2009-11-28T05:55:00.000-08:00

Picasa Tutorials

All the Picasa tutorials are located in the May and June archives.

This tutorial will end the series on restoring an old, damaged photo. The tutorial that follows is a rough introduction to the techniques involved using Photoshop Elements to color a black and white portrait photo. I didn't have the luxury of having a reference photo of the subject so I had to guess the color of the subject'ts hair, skin, etc. The important thing to remember here is to separate each item in the picture and place that item on its own separate layer. Each selection must be made from the original image and the subsequent color adjustments should be made by using the "Color" blending mode.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Adding Different Backgrounds to a Portrait Photo

2009-11-24T06:21:00.001-08:00

In this blog, I will share with you a couple of easy methods for changing the background look of the photograph of a person.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

AFTER:

Restoring a Damaged Photo with Photoshop - 3

2009-11-19T08:48:00.000-08:00

This blog is a continuation of the tutorials on restoring a damaged photograph.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Restoring a Damaged Photo with Photoshop - 2

2009-11-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

This is a followup to the previous blog. In this tutorial, I will demonstrate applying cosmetic fixes to the image below, ending up with converting the photo to black and white and applying a nice lighting effect.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Restoring a Damaged Photo

2009-11-11T06:29:00.000-08:00

Old, damaged, torn photos can usually be restored to a like-new condition by using Photoshop along with a good measure of patience and perseverance. The "AFTER:" photo below is only the first step in restoring this image as there are defects that need taking care of and will be the subject of my next blog.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Fixing Over-saturated Photos with Photoshop

2009-11-07T10:19:00.001-08:00

Earlier I demonstrated how one could correct over-saturated photos using Picasa --- http://www.fotofixin.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html. This link points to the June archives and the tutorial can be found about halfway down the page. Now, I am going to explain how one can fix this problem by using Photoshop with an adjustment layer.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Magnetic Lasso Tool

2009-11-02T13:42:00.000-08:00

Still another tool to discuss for making selections ---Magnetic Lasso Tool.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Magic Selections Brush Tool

2009-10-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

This is a more advanced example of making a selection but is doable with practice.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

More Photo Framing

2009-10-24T17:45:00.000-07:00

This is a followup to the last blog with some explanations about handy keyboard shortcuts used in Photoshop Elements.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Framing a Photo

2009-10-20T16:43:00.000-07:00

This session will cover using the "Elliptical Marquee Tool" to generate a frame for a photo.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Repairing a Damaged Photo

2009-10-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

I will cover techniques in this blog to repair a damaged photo along with using some new tools --- the Lasso Tool and the Spot Healing Brush. Using these techniques and others will enable you to restore old, stained, torn photos.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Fixing a White Sky with Photoshop Elements

2009-10-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

This is a followup to the demo of how to fix a white sky. I talked about the technique in a previous blog - http://fotofixin.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html. I will repeat the tutorial with a twist at the end to make the sky seem more realistic.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Levels Adjustment Layer Example

2009-09-24T17:16:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned previously that underexposed photos can be brightened up to a point and beyond that point the picture will soon become quite grainy. Here is a way to regulate the brightness of your image while maintaining control of the grain.
BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Color Cast Fix

2009-09-21T17:35:00.001-07:00

Fixing color cast problems was addressed in a previous blog using Picasa at http://fotofixin.blogspot.com/2009/06/fixing-color-cast.html. This blog will demonstrate editing color cast issues using Photoshop Elements.

BEFORE:

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

AFTER:

Correcting Flash Exposure Problems

2009-09-20T16:35:00.000-07:00

This picture suffers from what is called "flash dropoff." Objects around the area illuminated with flash are definitely darker the farther they are away from the center of the flash exposure. There are ways to correct images of this type but only to a point.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Levels Adjustment Layer - Part 3

2009-09-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

This is the third part of a three part tutorial on using Photoshop Element's Levels Adjustment Layer tool. We will cover three methods with this tool for saving this picture from the trash.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Levels Adjustment Layer - Part 2

2009-09-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

As I said in a previous blog, a digital photo is made up of millions of little colored squares called pixels. Each pixel's color is comprised of a mixture of red, green and blue. One can adjust the image's look as in the last blog by using the composite or RGB histogram. Still another way to make image adjustments is by editing the histogram of each individual color. In the following video we will be editing the red, green and blue channel histograms. Sounds complicated but it really is not!

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Levels Adjustment Layer - Part 1

2009-09-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

This will be an introduction to adjustment layers. The "Levels" adjustment tool is my favorite tool for several reasons, which I will get into in the accompanying video tutorial.

I sincerely hope that you will practice these techniques on some of the different photos in my blog. Simply right-click on any image and in the pop up menu, left-click on "Save Picture As" and then pick a place on your computer to save the image. Even better yet, practice on your own photos. Always remember to work on a copy of your photo and not the original.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

The Histogram

2009-09-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

When you take a picture with your digital camera, you are creating an image made up of millions of little colored squares called picture elements or pixels. The color of each pixel is made up of a mixture of red, green and blue. You can see the amount of each color and of the mixture itself in a graph called a histogram.

This tutorial is a brief explanation of the histogram. The histogram gives one useful information as you quickly can tell if your photo is too dark or too light or is lacking in contrast. Of course, your eye can tell you that but the histogram will give you insights about what you can do to improve your photographic results.

Video Tutorial:

Blending Mode for Low Contrast Photos

2009-09-06T16:11:00.000-07:00

There is another blending mode that is very well suited for enhancing the contrast in a photo. Actually, there are two blending modes - the "Overlay" and the "Soft Light" modes.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Blending Mode Fix for Underexposed Photos

2009-09-03T07:43:00.001-07:00

This blog is similar to the last one except this time I will be talking about underexposed images . The blending mode to use to fix defects of this type is the "Screen" mode.

Underexposed images also can be adjusted in Picasa using the "Fill Light" adjustment tool.

The lovely lady in the photo does a wonderful impersonation of Patsy Cline in her "Patsy Cline Tribute Show." I can assure you that if you are lucky enough to see her perform live, you will think you are listening to the real Patsy Cline.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Adjusting an Overexposed Photo using Blending Modes

2009-09-03T07:24:00.001-07:00

Some over-exposed photos need overall adjustment and the "Multiply" mode is teriffic for handling situations like this. When you duplicate your layer, as described in the previous blog, and apply the Multiply" blending mode, you may find that you have over-corrected the image. However, there is an easy fix to that where you can use the "Opacity" setting in the layers panel.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Multiply Blend Mode for Overexposed Photos

2009-09-01T11:47:00.001-07:00

There are a number of methods for correcting over-exposed photos. This is one of the simplest methods and one I hope you will like and use in the future.

Below is an excerpt from http://www.northlite.net/ps/blend.htm. This site has an excellent list of definitions of blending modes with examples of same. Below is the definition from this site of the "Multiply" blending mode. Remember during the video tutorial that white becomes transparent. If I apply a multiply mode to a layer, I can then paint on the blending layer with white to remove darkened areas of my image. This is similar to using a layer mask to selectively edit an image but I will save talking about layer masks for a later blog.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Magic Wand - Part 2

2009-08-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Followup to the last blog. Explanation of expanding a selection to avoid selections that do not have clean edges. And finally we will use the "Paint Bucket" tool to add a light blue color to the selected area.

Magic Wand - Part 1

2009-08-27T12:04:00.001-07:00

Photoshop Elements has quite an arsenal of Selection tools. We talked briefly about selections in the last blog. It is always a good idea to place items in a photo, that you like to edit, on their own layers. What I didn't say was that you may want to save your final work in two formats - a "PSD" format and/or a "JPG" or "GIF" format. If you save in a "PSD" format you can keep all your separate layers intact so that you can later make changes to these layers. When you save in a "JPG" or "GIF" format, you end up with flattened images -- all layers combined automatically into one image.

In this blog I will introduce you to the "Magic Wand" selection tool. It can be the tool of choice when you have large areas of a similar color to select.

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

Using Layers

2009-08-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

Layers is a very powerful feature of Photoshop. Think of layers as a stack of clear acetate films placed one on top of the other. What if you wanted to do a complete makeover of a model's face. You wanted to change her hair color, lipstick, eye color, add eyeglasses or remove eyeglasses, change her hair style, etc. You could do it on one image but if you were able to isolate each of her features and move them to separate layers, you would have a much easier time of it. You could make each change independent of the other elements of the model's face and then combine the layers into one picture. It seems like a lot of work but in the long run is a much quicker way to accomplish the above.

I have a picture on my blog of my three pets - two cats and a dog. They are sitting together without fighting. Impossible!!! But, if I took a picture of each one independently, I could extract each pet onto their own layer and then combine them into one image. I could move the layers around and resize the individual layers to ensure that their sizes relative to each other were correct. That is in fact what I did. Here is what I started with:

Here is the final combination.

True confession: My wife and I love our pets hence we always take a "8 X 10" copy of this picture with us on our travels.

But let me start with a simple example of using layers to show you how to paint clouds into a clear blue sky in order to enhance the picture. I will be using the Buddha picture that was in the last blog along with the "Lasso" and "Brush" tools in Photoshop Elements.

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Quick Edit for Removing an Artifact in your Photo

2009-08-22T17:34:00.000-07:00

There is another technique that works quite well in removing something from a picture that you wish wasn't there. This method works best when the area you are doctoring is uniform in content, such as a cloudless sky, or a brick wall, etc. We will be using a new tool - the "Rectangular Marquee" tool.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

In case you missed it, after you create the rectangle and soften the edges and select the "Move" tool, you must hold down the "ALT" key while moving the selection. If you don't hold down the "ALT" key you will leave behind an empty area in your photo.

AFTER:

Using the Clone Stamp - Part 4

2009-08-21T17:49:00.000-07:00

One more time with the Clone Stamp tool. There are times when you can speed up the work flow by switching from the Aligned Mode to the Non-Aligned Mode and vice versa.

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

Using the Clone Stamp - Part 3

2009-08-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

I would like to continue talking about the Clone Stamp Tool with a discussion of two different modes or settings used with this tool:

Aligned Mode

Unaligned Mode

Each mode has its uses but it is important to know what each one does.

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

Using the Clone Stamp - Part 2

2009-08-17T17:41:00.001-07:00

This blog is about using the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop Elements. You can see that someone's head got in the way in the photo below. More often than not there is some kind of artifact that shows up in your pictures that you wish you could remove. The Clone Stamp Tool can be the answer to your prayers. There are many tools in Photoshop that can take care of unwelcome artifacts but I am going to stick to the Clone Stamp in this tutorial.

BEFORE:

Video Tutorial:

AFTER:

Using the Clone Stamp - Part 1

2009-08-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

I have promised you that I would create a tutorial on how to eliminate areas of a photo that are undesirable. I talked about doing this in Picasa using the "Retouch" tool. The "Retouch" tool is limited in scope as it is best used for cleaning up small areas. The "Clone Stamp" tool in Photoshop Elements is a much more sophisticated tool and has many uses. Click on the above link - "Using the Clone Stamp - Part 1" - to see an example of a damaged picture that was completely resotred by using the "Clone Stamp" tool.

This initial tutorial covers some of the keyboard shortcuts that will greatly speed up your editing sessions. Also covered will be a description of brush hardness and why you need to use a "soft" brush vs. a "hard" brush.

How to Undo "Bad" Edits in Photoshop Elements

2009-08-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

This tutorial is about some of the ways one can undo editing mis-steps in Photoshop Elements.

How to Undo "Bad" Edits in Picasa

2009-08-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

I would like to step back from talking about Photoshop Elements and return to Picasa. This blog will show you a number of ways to undo mistakes you might have made in your editing sessions. The video is self-explanatory so let's sit back and watch the demo.

Camera Distortion Fixes - Part 6

2009-08-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

If you don't have Photoshop Elements 5, you can purchase it on eBay for as low as $25 (including shipping and handling.) This is $5 less than the price I quoted on an earlier blog.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Camera Distortion Fixes - Part 5

2009-07-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of a temple in Taiwan. I edited this image first in Picasa beginning with straightening it as described in this previous blog. The next step was to adjust the contrast and brightness, then the color balance, and finally the problem with the blown-out sky. I will, in future blogs, explain how to do all of the above edits using Photoshop Elements 5 instead of Picasa. A final edit was necessary in order to take care of the distortion. For that purpose it was necessary to use Photoshop Elements.

BEFORE:

The type of distortion you see above is quite common and is seen most frequently with photographs of buildings. When you take a picture of a building, the camera lens is closer to the bottom of the image than to the top of it. This distance difference causes the photo to appear to be leaning away from you and the image narrows as you look at it from bottom to top. It is especially obvious if you look at the columns at the left and right sides of the temple. They are all leaning into the center (Keystoning).

STILL BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Camera Distortion Fixes - Part 3

2009-07-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

This blog is about fixing pictures that are distorted with something called Pincushion Distortion. The fix is similar to the edit described in my last blog - that was about Barrel Distortion.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Camera Distortion Fixes - Part 2

2009-07-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

This tutorial is about fixing something called Barrel Distortion. It is a relatively simple edit in Photoshop Elements.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Camera Distortion Fixes - Part 1A

2009-07-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

In my last blog I went over a method of straightening some objects that were leaning in opposite directions --- specifically a number of skyscrapers that were not "standing tall." The procedure that I described included a number of keyboard shortcuts that I encourage you to use in the future. However, I want to point out an area where I may have mislead you. Often when you make adjustments of this type you uncover some areas of transparency (denoted by a gray and white checkerboard look.) I showed you one method of eliminating the transparent areas. In this video tutorial you will see another and possibly better method of taking care of any transparencies.

Camera Distortion Fixes - Part 1

2009-07-21T09:49:00.001-07:00

Camera lenses are responsible for a number of distortions in your photos. This blog is about fixing a type of distortion called "Keystoning." The BEFORE: picture below is a classical example of Keystoning. Notice how most of the buildings are leaning either to the right or to the left. As I mentioned before, using the Straighten Tool in Picasa will not correct problems of this type. You need a more sophisticated photo editor, such as Photoshop Elements. I will be using Version 5 for this and upcoming blogs.

I have to repeat at this point that Photoshop is the Cadillac of photo editors. It is truly a fabulous tool for enhancing images. Any photo edit that I have described so far can certainly also be done using Photoshop. The point being that 90% of problems with photos can be quickly taken care of by using Picasa's editing tools. Those of you who have been using Photoshop for some time know its power. The downside is that it takes a while to load an image into Photoshop and then once you have your hands on the image you find yourself tweaking away using all of the editor's bells and whistles. And, when you have several hundred vacation pictures to go through, you are looking at weeks of work.

When you install Picasa on your computer, the program automatically scans your hard drive and generates a copy of every image and stores these copies in the Picasa Library. If you edit an image inside of Picasa you are only working on a copy of the original. To prove this to yourself, right-click on that image, and in the popup menu left-click on "Locate on disk." In this way you can see the edited version inside of Picasa and the original version safe and sound on your computer's hard drive.

To open an image in the Photoshop editor, right-click on an image in the Picasa Library, and on the pop up menu left-click on "Open with" and finally, on the new popup menu, left-click on the Photoshop software that you are using. You will be working on the original image while in Photoshop. To ensure that you keep the original picture untouched, click on "File" and then on "Duplicate" in the drop-down menu. In the pop up dialog box, type in a short meaningful name for your image. The title of your photo at the very top of the screen will change to reflect what you have chosen for the image name. I will demonstrate this in the following video.

By the way, I didn't finish this video tutorial by sharpening the photo. This photo had already been sharpened once and you should only sharpen once. If I had been editing this photo from the start, I would have done the sharpening at the end as I always do.

There is a bonus picture at the bottom for additional practice. It would be a good idea to view this video more than once and to practice on both photographs. The keyboard shortcuts explained in this tutorial will come in handy in later blogs. Repetition is the key so practice, practice, etc.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

PRACTICE IMAGE:

Using Picasa's Photo Filters - Part 2

2009-07-16T07:48:00.001-07:00

In this blog I will cover two other photo filters included in the "Effects" section found in Picasa's edit mode:

Soft Focus
Focal B&W

These two filters have one thing in common in that they allow you to highlight the most important part of your photograph. This is an artistic technique used by many photographers to direct the viewer's focus on the central object in the picture. The snapshot below is of a soldier taking his break at the Great Wall of China.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:
SOFT FOCUS:

AFTER:
FOCAL B&W:

Using Picasa's Photo Filters - Part I

2009-07-14T13:12:00.000-07:00

We haven't spent much time talking about Picasa's collections of filters found in the "Effects" section of the edit interface. The exception has been the Sharpen, Saturation, Warmify, and Graduated Tint filters. Of course, you should always finish off any editing session of a photo with a Sharpen adjustment.

I would like to discuss the B&W, Sepia, and Warmify filters. I lump them together for the reason that simply clicking on one of these filters does not necessarily produce the best result possible.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:
BLACK & WHITE:

SEPIA:

WARMIFY:

Revisiting Low Contrast Fixes Using Picasa

2009-07-13T18:55:00.000-07:00

Earlier, I presented a tutorial on fixing dull, low contrast pictures - see "Your First Edit With Picasa 3." In this blog I am going to go over a more controlled method for photos having the above-mentioned problem. By the way, this picture was taken from the observation floor of the world's tallest, completed, building in Shanghai, China. There are two taller buildings, that are uncompleted, as of yet - one in Taipei (Taiwan) and the other in Dubai.

NOTE:
One thing I forgot to mention is that if you left-click one time on any picture in my blogs, you will see a blown up view of same. Please take the time to click on the AFTER: image below to see incredible detail. You will see a close up of our cruise ship located two miles away. You will see the buses and cars at the foot of the buildings, etc. When you are through looking around, simply click on the back button "<" in your browser to return here. I recommend your looking at the enlarged version of several of the photos in my blog.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Fixing the Red-Eye Effect

2009-07-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when taking a picture, the result is a photo with the subject having what is known as the red-eye effect. This is caused by taking a flash picture while standing close to the subject. It is an easy fix with Picasa 3. As always, you can download the "BEFORE:" picture for editing.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Using the Retouch Tool for Fixing Blemishes

2009-07-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

The new "Retouch" tool found in the "Basic Fixes" section in edit mode in Picasa 3 is very useful for removing small blemishes from your photos. When it comes to larger defects, Photoshop Elements is the way to go. I will have a later blog on using Elements for fixing unsightly areas.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Warming Up A Picture

2009-06-29T17:48:00.000-07:00

Some pictures could use a warmer look. It usually is a matter of taste as to how much warmer they should look. Consider the picture below. I will explain how to make this picture look warmer and consequently more appealing in the video tutorial which follows.

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

As always, you are welcome to download the "BEFORE" picture and practice with it.

Fixing a White Sky with Picasa

2009-06-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

BEFORE:

Often you take a picture on a bright sunny day and end up with a photo that has what I call a blown-out sky. This is a result of the camera's electronics. These skies can be fixed by using the "Graduated Tint" feature in the "Effects" section of the Picasa editor.

VIEW TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Of course, you can download the "BEFORE:" image yourself and fix it for practice. I have also inlcuded the picture below for another image to practice with.

I mentioned in a previous blog that there are a number of photo fixes that need more sophisticated image editors. I quite often use Photoshop Elements in special cases and in particular Photoshop Elements 5. I took a picture in Venice during a beautiful sunny day and the image later proved to have a blown-out sky. See the following demo at: http://www.fotofixin.com/photo_enhancements.html. Roll your mouse button over the picture to see a before and after look.

Fixing Over-saturated Photos

2009-06-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

One of the problems with taking pictures in a low-light environment is that the resulting photos often have color saturations problems. For example,

BEFORE:

This problem has to do with the camera and its light-sensing electronics. Furthermore, you usually are too far from the subject for your camera flash to help. This is an easy edit to make with Picasa 3.

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Fixing a Color Cast

2009-06-03T17:46:00.000-07:00

One easy fix in Picasa 3 is correcting a color cast. First you have to identify that a photo's colors don't look quite right. The easiest place to see a color problem is in the area of a person's skin. It might look a little green or blue, etc. For example, let's look at the following image where the color of the bath towel is definitely off:
BEFORE:

Fixing this color cast is easy to do with Picasa 3 as you will see in the following video:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

I have included three photos for you to practice on. Simply right-click on each image in turn, and left-click on "Save Image As..." or "Save Picture As...". When presented with a dialog box, choose to save the image to your Desktop so that you will be able to find this downloaded photo later. The image will be automatically imported to your Picasa 3 software in the "Recently Updated" folder where you can proceed to practice with the "Neutral Color Picker" tool in the manner described in the video tutorial. Remember to double click on the thumbnail to bring the thumbnail into edit mode. Good luck and have fun!!!!

If you still don't have Picasa 3 installed on your computer, please go to http://www.geeksontour.com/showme/picasa/pic302_install.cfm
for installation instructions.

Tilted Camera Fix

2009-05-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

One easy fix in Picasa 3 is straightening 'tilted' pictures. It is so easy to have your camera at an angle as you intently focus on some subject that you want to capture with your camera. For example:

BEFORE:
This picture was taken looking at a cruise ship sailing down the Grand Canal in Venice. I wanted to catch the ship before it sailed out of sight, hence I rushed the shot. It is not a bad picture as far as composition goes, but everything looks like it is leaning toward the right. Before I got into image editing, I would have been happy with this image but now, when I see something like this, I have to make it right!

Straightening a picture is easy to do with Picasa 3 as you will see in the following video:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER:

Introduction to Photo Editing

2009-05-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

When my wife and I travel, we normally, between the two of us, take some 500 or more digital photos. After transferring the photos to my PC, I find that just about every one of the pictures needs some kind of touchup. I have learned the hard way that adjusting or enhancing these photos can take weeks of hard work. I will explain in a later blog.

"The Big Five" Photo Defects

2009-05-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

There are many, many photo editors out there that one can use to fix pictures that fall into "The Big Five" problem areas:

Under Exposure
Over Exposure
Low Contrast
Tilted Camera
Color Cast

In my opinion, the two best editors are:

Photoshop
Picasa 3

Let me start off with Photoshop --- the Cadillac of all photo editors and also the most expensive. I have been using Photoshop for many years and have become addicted to all the bells and whistles this software provides. Within reason you can correct just about any defect with Photoshop and to help prove my point, I will be supplying before and after examples in a later blog. The only problem in using Photoshop is that one can tweak and tweak a photo forever. Once you are aware of the power of this software, you will find yourself spending a great deal of time on each image. Now, if you return from a trip with several hundred pictures, you will literally spend weeks and weeks fixing all of them.

Given that 90% of all imperfect photos can be categorized by one or more of "The Big Five" defects, you can use a less sophisticated editor, such as Picasa 3. I have found that using Picasa will do the job very nicely and that you will correct your large collection of photos in days and not weeks.

There are a number of types of defects, however, that Picasa cannot correct. I will give you examples of these defects at a later time.

"The Big Five" Causes

2009-05-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

In my website http://www.fotofixin.com/, I point out that 90% of photo defects fall into five categories:

Under Exposure
Over Exposure
Low Contrast
Tilted Camera
Color Cast

Please visit my site to see examples of these defects. Simply move the mouse back and forth over the images to see before and after results.

Under exposure is the most common problem with photos. The taken picture turns out to be too dark. The light sensor in the camera received a false reading of the lighting conditions. This can be caused by something called "backlighting". Backlighting refers to a strong light source in the field of vision of your lens which biases the total light measured. The light sensor sends a message to the shutter to open and close too quickly thus not letting enough light to be recorded. There is a technique to use in order to get a more accurate sample of the ambient light. One should focus the camera on an area that is more representative of the lighting conditions, depress the shutter half way, and then, keeping the shutter button depressed, return the view finder to the subject of interest, and depress the shutter button fully. There are other techniques but enough for now.

Over exposure is a result of incorrect reading by the light sensor causing the shutter to remain open too long.

Low contrast can occur when taking a picture on a murky, cloudy day.

Tilted camera defect is exactly what it says --- the person taking the picture is so intent on capturing the subject, that he/she has the camera tilted.

Color cast is a problem caused by the nature of the light source. The color generated by the light source is invisible to the naked eye but not to the captured image. Different light sources contain different color spectrums --- incandescent lighting, sun light, tungsten light, etc.

A picture is worth a thousand words hence I must encourage you to visit my website --- http://www.fotofixin.com/.

In my next post I will talk a little about other problems with photos.

Photo Editors' Costs

2009-05-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

The following is a list of photo editors with their respective prices as determined by searching the Internet:

As you can see, Photoshop is expensive. However, you can save money by buying an older version, such as Photoshop 7 or Photoshop CS. Both of these older version have many more sophisticated photo adjustment tools than the most recent version of Photoshop Elements. However, you probably will never need any more editing power than is available with Photoshop Elements. Notice, the same principle applies with Elements in that you can certainly buy an older version in order to save money. I have and use Elements 5 and also Photoshop CS2. If you find yourself, later on, developing a real passion for photo editing, you may want to upgrade to some version of Photoshop.

Introduction to Picasa 3

2009-05-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Below is a picture of the Picasa 3 download page found at http://picasa.google.com/ .

By the way, I heartily recommend clicking on the following links (you can click on them on the Picasa home page or simply click on the ones below):

These are very well written tutorials about Picasa that will help you understand the many features this fine photo editor has to offer. In fact, Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=picasa+3&aq=f) contains several worthwhile video tutorials about Picasa 3.

Installation of Picasa 3

2009-05-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

I have found a decent video tutorial online for Picasa 3 that will lead you through the download and installation process: http://www.geeksontour.com/showme/picasa/pic302_install.cfm

When presented with a dialog screen for "Setup" during the installation process, you should check "Desktop Shortcut" and uncheck everything else.

Also when you run Picasa 3 for the first time, click on the "Select None" button in the dialog for "Photo Viewer Configuration." Also, at this point check "Don't Use Picasa Photo Viewer."

At the end of the first time running the software, Picasa will automatically search your computer for every image on it. It will organize all your images by folder name and creation date. The side panel on the left lists the most recent pictures on top to the oldest on the bottom.

Your First Edit With Picasa 3

2009-05-13T17:36:00.000-07:00

This video tutorial describes a simple but effective edit of a photo using Picasa 3. We will be using the following photo:

BEFORE:

VIDEO TUTORIAL:

AFTER: