correctmyphotos

Happy Holidays from Dickens
You can create your own holiday greeting cards in a few short minutes. Well, maybe we’ll start the timer after you decide on the photo you want to use. That might take a bit longer. For this example I chose a photo I took of Dickens last Christmas wearing his Santa outfit. (He really wasn’t crazy about wearing it, but was a good sport about it.)

Create your own greeting card-Dicken's had some help creating his

 Step 1-Edit the photo
As I have said many times, every photo needs to be cropped and color corrected and this shot is no exception. I used CorrectPhoto to crop the photo using the 4×6 cropping format. I chose not to center Dickens so I could add the greeting on the right side of the photo. Using the OneClick color correction feature I clicked on the white portion of his hat and I was done.

Crop and color correct the photo-I used CorrectPhoto Editor

Step 2-Add Greeting Text to Photo
To add the text I used PictoColor’s ImageTitler because it is so simple (I still have difficulty using Photoshop Elements to add text to photos and it takes too long.)

Add Titles and Text to Photos with ImageTitler by PictoColor

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Turn Your Color Photos into Stunning Black and White

Convert Color to Black and White with Software

 

While many of the newer digital cameras are equipped with a digital effects function that will allow you to create a black and white photo, I suggest you shoot in color and use software to create the black and white or sepia tone photo. It is really easy to do with Photoshop Elements or CorrectPhoto. (continue reading…)

Photo Editing can be fun—if it is easy!

Yesterday is was 10 degrees below zero as I sat on our porch enjoying the warmth of the sun. Inside my wife’s colorful orchids where blooming and outside the snow was cold and white. I couldn’t resist taking a couple of photos with my trusty old Canon G5 in Auto Mode—actually I took about 20 shots.

Orchids & Snow-Photo Editing Can be Fun

And, if you have visited this blog before you know that I believe every digital photo can benefit from a little cropping and color correcting.  I, of course, used CorrectPhoto because it is easy and I have the thumbnail images available to quickly pick the photo I want to edit.  The OneClick color correction feature of CorrectPhoto makes color correction a snap.  But, if you have Photoshop Elements and know how to use it go ahead edit the photo with it.  You can add the OneClick color correction with iCorrect OneClick Plug-inand get the same quick color correction that is in CorrectPhoto. (continue reading…)

Every Photo Needs To Be Cropped. How to Crop.

As I discussed in my last post, every digital photo needs to be cropped (“Why Crop?”). To crop a photo you need a photo editing program and there are many to choose from. Most likely, there was an editing program included in with your digital camera and most online print services offer some level of editing features. A simple fact is that most photo editing programs are too complicated and difficult to learn for most digital photographers whose primary interest is taking pictures and showing them to friends and family. You have to determine your level of interest and amount of time you have to devote to learning a photo editor and to edit photos.

From my perspective if you are willing to learn to use a comprehensive photo editing program I would recommend Photoshop Elements by Adobe. If you are not, I recommend CorrectPhoto by PictoColor (Admittedly, I am a bit prejudice regarding CorrectPhoto, but the choice is yours.) If you don’t want to spend money on a photo editing program you might want to consider using the Windows Photo Gallery editor included in Windows Vista or a free online service. I do believe, however, that photo editing is best done on your computer before images are uploaded to an online print or sharing service. I would also avoid using Photo Kiosks at retail stores to edit photos, but I will talk about that in a future post.

As I previously discussed (Photo Applications) before you crop you must decide what you are going to do with the photo. For this discussion I will assume you want to make a 4×6 print. (continue reading…)