We all love our digital cameras. Because most mobile phones have a camera built in, we take them with us almost everywhere we go, ever ready for that “Kodak gold” moment.
Sometimes, though, well your picture just doesn’t look right. Maybe there is a power line in the way. Perhaps everyone in the picture has redeye. Maybe someone has one too many wrinkles in the photograph. Using some free software, we can now get rid of all these blemishes. In this article, I will list what I think are simple to use image editors which with a little bit of work will have you editing your photos in no time.
Windows Live Photo Gallery
First up is Windows Live Photo Gallery, available as a free download from Microsoft. This program allows you to import your photos directly from your camera, organise them into folders and edit them so that they look their best. If you have multiple shots of the same area, it will allow you to create panoramic pictures of the area.
Windows Live Photo Gallery can be downloaded from http://goo.gl/7EHv and there are some excellent tutorials available fromhttp://goo.gl/Zi1KQ
(Available for Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 only)
Picasa
The second package is Google’s Picasa. Like windows Live Photo Gallery, it also allows you to download images from your camera, create folders and edit the images. Picasa ties in well with other Google services. For example, if you took a picture of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, you can link that image to the location of the Cathedral on Google Maps. You can also create collages or videos if your images from within Picasa.
Various helpful tutorials on how to use the various features of Picasa and a download link for the software can be found herehttp://goo.gl/fGXV
(Available for Windows XP, Vista, 7, OS X and Linux)
Adobe Photoshop Express
Our final suggestion is an online package by Adobe. Photoshop Express offers a wide range of tools to edit your photographs. Photoshop Express allows you to crop, straighten, adjust colour, and touch up any imperfections on your photographs. For those of you with an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, check out the App Store or Android Market for the free.
Photoshop Express is available for use at http://goo.gl/wxB8 where you will also find many tutorials on how to get the best out of the software.
(Available for Windows, OS X, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android)
Obviously this is just a short list of free packages available to help improve the look of your photographs. As you get more experienced, there are many other packages out there that will offer you the ability to do more with your photographs. One final word, when editing your photographs, try not to edit the originals, make a copy of them. If you manage to ruin a photograph by over editing it, at least you still have the original copy.
