Thursday, March 19, 2009

Basic photo editing with Picasa

For most of us, learning how to use Photoshop, understanding what layers are, needing a good PC to work with will all seem to much of a mountain to climb for most beginners.

However, we do need to edit most of the photos that we take, the usual needs are usually for

  • straightening, especially for horizons in landscapes
  • improve contrast, when there is a need to emphasize certain parts of the image
  • increase sharpness, to enhance your pictures
  • crop, to get the right framing for the image

Of course, you may want to do a lot more, but those are the basic needs.  To do those easily, Google’s Picasa seems to fit the bill pretty well (of course there are others) and with the integration to an online image hosting service that’s fast, Picasa Web, it makes sense to try this out.DSC01403 Original picture (above) was taken using a Sony Alpha 200, ISO100, F5.6 (for a shallow depth of field), 6 secs shutter at 70mm using the Sony DT1870 kit lens.  It was later edited.

alphanatics [submitted]To emphasize on the words Twin Cam and ensuring that the engine components are noted.  To do this, the 4 basic editing work was done.

Next post, straightening the “Twin Cam” …

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