correctmyphotos

Most Facebook photos are dull and lifeless?
Recently, I have become a more active Facebook participant and posting photos and viewing photos My Friends post. And, while I take the time to edit my photos before uploading, most people do not. As a result, the vast majority of photos posted on Facebook pages are dull and lifeless and many are a bit fuzzy.  So, why is that? There are probably many answers to that question ranging from the fact that most people are conditioned to simply accept the quality of the digital photos from their camera to not knowing how to improve them. Maybe they think it is just too complicated to edit digital photos or they simply can’t wait to share their latest photo with their Facebook friends. The purpose of this post is to show you how to make your Facebook photos better.
Making Better Facebook Photos is Easy—and Fast.

Facebook Photos You Can Be Proud to Post-Original/Improved

There are basically three (3) steps to making your photos better: crop the photo, fix the color, and resize the photo for Facebook. And, if you want to make the photo a little more interesting you can add a title, but more on that in a future post.  If you are have and know how to use a photo editor like Photoshop Elements you certainly can use it to perform the basic tasks, however, I use CorrectPhoto Editor because it is so easy and fast. Here are the basic steps using CorrectPhoto. And, at $40.00 it is inexpensive. Unfortunately, if you are a Mac user you will have to use Photoshop or Elements since CorrectPhoto is a Windows only editor.

Crop the Photo

Crop the photo with CorrectPhoto Editor

After opening the photo you want to edit from the built in Explorer you click on the “Crop Tool” on the tool bar and select the cropping format from the pull down menu. For Facebook publishing I suggest the 3×4 Landscape or Portrait formats since that is the same format of your digital camera and is the most common format for Facebook. Adjust the cropping window to highlight the portion of the image you really want to show. You can see from the example that I cropped tight enough to eliminate Craig from the left side of the photo.

Correct the Color with OneClick Color

CorrectPhoto with iCorrect OneClick Color Technology-Automatic Color Correction

CorrectPhoto is the only photo editor with PictoColor’s unique OneClick Color Correction Technology that is an automatic color correction that really works. Just click on an area of the photo that is “neutral” (white, gray, or black) and the photo will come alive. If you want to “tweak” it a little more as I usually do click on the color icon to activate the advance settings. I usually boost the saturation a bit to make the colors a little more vivid which really makes my photos stand out on my Facebook wall. For you Photoshop or Elements users who get frustrated with the color correction tools you can get iCorrect OneClick Plug-in with the same technology that will plug into Photoshop.

Resize the photo before uploading to Facebook.

Add a title?
I will tell you about an easy way to add titles to your photos in a future post.

Add a title to your photo is easy with ImageTitler

 Wayne    www.correctphoto.com, www.imagetitler.com, www.pictocolor.com

USA 15 Star Flag Flying over Floyd’s Monument, Sioux City, IA.

15 Star Flag at Floyd Monument, Sioux City, IA

This past weekend my wife and I took a little road trip from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls, SD by way of Sioux City, IA (Nebraska and SD).  Why? Well, when our trip to a friend’s cabin in Spearfish Canyon, SD was cancelled we decided to take a couple of days and see the eastern part of South Dakota. And, another friend suggested we go to Sioux City where South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska join.  So we did and that is where we learned about Sergeant Charles Floyd. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know who he is. No one I ask, even those who grew up in SD and IA, know who he is either.

Sergeant Floyd’s Claim to Fame—He Died!
That’s right. Sergeant Floyd’s claim to fame is that he was the only person to die on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Quite remarkable that only one person died on that famous trip across the US. Here is a link if you are interested in learning more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Floyd_(explorer)

The 15 Star Flag—The Digital Photo Lesson
The flag flying over Floyd’s Monument has 15 stars representing the 15 states comprising the US when Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  Trying to capture the flag to show all of the stars turned out to be a challenge, however. But, as I have said before, one of the benefits of a digital camera is that you can take lots of shots to get a usable one. This is the best of about 10 shots I took.  Even with the multiple shots I still needed to edit the photo with CorrectPhoto. Here is a before and after comparison.

(continue reading…)

Sometimes you just have to see better color to know.
The other day our Rotary Club  cooked 250 hot dogs for the Burnsville Kids of Summer program’s final day, a project we have done for about 20years. Heather and I took a few photos of the event. When I got back to the office I edited a few with CorrectPhoto and sent them to Heather for our clubs website. She went back to her office and uploaded a few of my photos with a few of hers. (Heather is the editor of our club’s website.) Now Heather does have CorrectPhoto and loves it, however, she has it on her home computer and not on her office computer so she bypassed the photo editing step and uploaded uncorrected photos. (Sound familiar?) When I saw the photo gallery of the event I mentioned to my friend Bill and mentioned the fact that Heather hadn’t had time to color correct her photos. His comment was, “Only you would know that?” That is really not true, but it did get me to thinking about how does one really know the color is not right? I guess the reality is that most people just accept the color they get from their digital camera and don’t realize that the color could be better. So, do you think the color is right or okay in the following photo?

Is the Color Right? Look at the mustard bottle and the girls shirt.

Now compare it with this photo. Now, doesn’t the original photo look dull and lifeless compared with the color corrected one?

Look at the mustard bottle and the girl's shirt to see the difference in color

Do you need to see the photos side by side to tell the difference? (continue reading…)

I updated the theme of my Blog today. I got tired of the pink text in the old theme. As I said when I started the correctmyphotos blog, blogging is a new adventure for me so I continue to learn and try new things. The latest version of WordPress has made it easier to find and install new themes so I might change themes a few times over the next few months.  Let me know what you think of the new them.

Wayne http://www.correctphoto.com

Or, What to do when you retire.

My friend Bob is a fascinating guy. After a career teaching math at both the Junior High and High School in Burnsville, MN he started a second career as a financial advisor.  Now, in “semi-retirement” living in the Villages in Florida for six months out of the year he decided to become an artist.  After a few lessons he quickly surpassed the instructor and has become quite good. His subject matter so far has been interesting landscapes painted from photos. When Bob and his wife were back in Minnesota for the Christmas Holidays I told him about The Burnsville Rotary Club’s upcoming Concert For Caring Fund Raiser and he volunteered to paint a picture of a Burnsville scene and donate it to the silent auction. The catch was that I had to select the “Burnsville Scene” for him to paint and provide the photo. I gave him two to choose from, a winter shot of our Centennial Park garden and a fall scene of Gemstone Park.  Bob chose the more colorful photo (not a surprise-who wants to paint snow when you are in Florida) and here is a photo of the painting. Bob is even donating the frame. Below Bob’s painting I included the photo Bob used. You can see that Bob added his own creative touches. It seems he prefers blue skies and blue water. Maybe he is spending too much time in Florida.

Gemstone Park, Artist: Bob Karp 2009Gemstone Park Photo

I took this photo on my way to the office last fall. It was a beautiful fall morning with bright sun and no wind. As I drove past I couldn’t resist taking the photo even though I had to go back home to pick up my camera.  Since one never knows when something worth photographing is going to pop up it is a good idea to keep you camera charged up and in the car. And, who would have thought that this photo would turn into wonderful painting by a new artist.

Gemstone Park Photo

Bob started painting pictures about the time he turned 70. So, we are never to old to learn something new. At his point I plan to continue taking the pictures and let Bob do the painting. But, one never knows. Something to think about.

Wayne http://www.correctphoto.com

BTW, I did use CorrectPhoto with OneClick Color to make the color right before I made the print to give to Bob.

Gemstone Park-Original Photo before CorrectPhoto OneClick Color