Photo editing by computer has become an essential skill for many antiquers. Digital cameras are used for everything from taking a picture of an antiques show booth to illustrating an on-line auction listing. Even pictures taken with a film camera can be scanned and edited by computer.
Two popular photo editing programs are Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI and Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 ). List prices are $99.99 and $89.99, respectively. Each company also offers top-of-the-line software for the professional graphics designer. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 is $399, and Adobe Photoshop CS2 is $649, but we will consider neither. Even the less expensive photo editors have more capability than most people will use.
Here are the common basic tasks Paint Shop and Elements can handle.
o Rotate. Unless the camera automatically rotates the picture when the camera is turned on its side, software is needed to orient the picture.
o Crop. Almost all photos profit by cropping. Viewfinders are not perfect, and we tend to leave extra space to be safe. Skillful cropping emphasizes the subject and improves artistic composition.
o Resize. If a picture is going to be made into a paper print, file size is not important. But a picture for the Internet should be resized. A 5 megapixel camera might take a picture that is 2956 by 1893 dots or pixels. Almost no computer monitor can display that much detail. A picture for the Internet should be resized to a width of less than 800 pixels if it is to fill the screen, half that if it will share the screen with text. All picture-editing software can resize, but better editors such as Paint Shop and Elements have sophisticated mathematics to yield the best quality in the resized print.
o Compress. Resizing reduces the file size, speeding download for the Web viewer. In addition, the most popular camera and Internet file format compresses the file size further. Too much compression blurs fine detail. Good picture editors permit optimizing the amount of compression.
o Balance Color. Back in the days of color slides, there were different camera films for sunlight and indoor lighting. Indoor lighting is redder; sunlight is bluer. Digital cameras try to compensate for the color of the ambient light, but they sometimes miss, especially under fluorescent lighting. Color balance can be adjusted by photo editing software.
o Set Brightness and Contrast. Pictures taken in bright light can be too harsh. Diffuse lighting can make a picture dull. Most pictures can be improved by brightness and contrast adjustments. Photo editors provide many tools for these adjustments, and it is worth learning to use each of them. If the picture is for the Internet, check the final adjustment on a CRT computer monitor (a standard monitor), a flat panel monitor, and a laptop. It is surprising how different the renditions can be.
o Sharpen. A blurred photo can be the result of camera motion, incorrect focus, or an inexpensive digital camera. The detail lost in the blur cannot be recovered, but the image can be improved by sharpening edges. Photo editors have menu items for increasing sharpness. Do not overuse them. Confusingly, one common sharpness tool is called the "unsharp mask."
o Correct Automatically. Most photo editors have a one-step or automatic correction button. The button usually makes good guesses and corrects color balance, brightness, contrast, and sharpness. It is always worth a try if there are a lot of photos to be processed. There is an "undo" button if the results are not ideal.
o Straighten. Without a tripod it is hard to keep a camera level. Photo editors have a tool for straightening tilted subjects or horizons.
o Fix Distortion. Camera angle can cause distortion. A tall building can appear to be falling over backward. A picture of furniture taken from too high a viewpoint can show the opposite effect. Better photo editors have tools for correcting this distortion. Distortion also can be a problem when framed goods are photographed. The rectangular frame can look like a trapezoid because the camera was off center. This often happens when trying to avoid reflections in the frame's glass. The distortion tools can correct this. This column in the issue of March 2005 gave step-by-step instructions.
o Retouch. Editing software has tools for retouching. It is not honest to use these tools to hide chips and scratches on merchandise, but they can be used to remove lighting reflections or foreground distractions.
o Fix Red-eye. When pictures of people are taken using flash, the eye pupil can have an alarming red color caused by reflection from the retina. All photo editors have a red-eye removal tool. Some also correct for colors other than red seen in the eyes of cats and other animals.
o Control Background. Editors such as Paint Shop and Elements have tools to select portions of an image for special treatment. Less expensive editors do not. The tools are not easy to use, and practice is needed to become skillful. The selected portion of an image, however, can have its color balance, brightness, contrast, or sharpness adjusted without affecting the other parts. The unselected parts can be faded or blurred, thereby mitigating a distracting background. The selected part can be lifted out entirely and placed on a new background.
o Convert to Grayscale. If the image is to be reproduced without color on a copier or computer printer, let the photo editor convert the image to grayscale first. It will do a better job than the printer or copier. Watch out for pictures with a lot of dark tones. They often do not print well. On a computer inkjet printer they can leave the paper wet.
o Add Text. There are many reasons to add text to an image. It puts information right with the picture instead of in a caption. Text can state ownership of the picture. Photo editors can add text to pictures using any of the fonts available on the computer. One suggestion: use the "layers" feature of the image editor. Create the text on a new, separate layer that can be moved independent of the image. Combine the layers only when size and position of the text are perfect.
o Set Image Information. The common digital camera file format allows information to be included in the picture file that never appears on the face of the picture. Camera model, exposure settings, and exposure date are automatically included. Photo editors can add much more, including an ownership or copyright statement. A picture pirate can change this, but at least you are on record.
o Convert Format. The most common camera and scanner file format is called JPG (derived from the name Joint Photographic Experts Group). It is also the most common picture file format for Web sites. There are several other formats for the Web and dozens of other formats used by word processors and databases. Photo editors can convert back and forth between them. In addition, photo editors can split images into the four-color multiple layers used by commercial printers. Commercial printing, however, requires high standards for such files, and the requirements should be discussed with the print shop.
Photo editors have many other capabilities. The average user will never need them all. But selecting a good program and learning to use it can make your pictures better than those produced by the editors that are packaged with many cameras.
