April
2004
Q:
Is it worth buying image editing software?
A:
With a combination of word processing and painting packages, you can produce
quite attractive pictures and change the look of your home photos. However,
they are very limited when compared to the amazing effects offered by
packages such as PhotoShop, Painter Classic or Paint Shop Pro. For serious
digital camera or publication buffs, purchasing one of these applications is
going to be necessary at some stage. If you are planning to buy a new
camera, you may even find one that comes with software as part of the deal.
Here are some of the effects you can apply to your
digital or scanned photos with this type of software:
-
Remove red-eye
-
Layer text on top of images
-
Organise pictures so that
several can be printed on one page
-
Turn images into watercolours,
charcoal sketches, stained glass etc.
-
Surround images with picture
frames in different styles and widths
-
Sharpen or blur different
parts, and change contrast and colours for any element
-
Transfer colour from one area
to another (called cloning) to disguise objects e.g. paint sky or grass
over an unwanted building or person
-
Remove scratches from old
photos
-
Run animations – create a
number of very slightly different images and then flick rapidly through
them (rather like making a cartoon).
Q: I
am worried about copyright, but want to increase the range of pictures I can
include in my Christmas and Easter cards. What can I use from the World
Wide Web and how can I add them to my cards?
A:
Many images that you find when browsing on the Web will say something to the
effect that copyright may be infringed if you use them. However, one group
of pictures is usually quite free to use. This is labelled “Clipart” but is
far more extensive than the range of pictures you may have found using
Microsoft Clipart Gallery. If you put this word into your search engine
query box as well as the theme for your pictures, you should be offered a
number of Websites providing pictures for free.
Having found a picture you
want to use, you have 2 options: copy it directly or save it onto your
computer and use it later.
To copy: right-click the
picture and select Copy. Open your publication, right click the page and
select Paste. The picture will appear and you can move it into
position. This is the best option if you will only want to use the picture
once.
To save for repeated
uses: right-click the picture and select Save Picture As. This will open a
Save As window. I would recommend changing the picture name (this is often
in code and meaningless) but leave the file type e.g. JPG or GIF as it
is. (Most publishing or word processing software nowadays can deal with all
types of picture, and these web images are compressed and so smaller files
than the Bitmap (bmp) images used by Microsoft Paint.) As with any save,
select a suitable folder location for the image and then click Save.
To use the picture in your
card: open the Insert menu and select Picture from File.
Locate the picture, click Insert and it will appear on your page.
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