PHOTO AND IMAGE EDITING WITH FREEWARE
©2014 by Donald R. Snow
Sections of the Class Notes
- Welcome and Introduction
- Photos From Your Digital Camera and Scanning
- Photo Editing with Picasa
- Photo Editing with Windows Photo Gallery
- Photo and Image Editing with Other Freeware
- Comparison and comments
- Conclusions
This page was last updated 2014-05-19
Return to the Utah Valley Technology and
Genealogy Group Home Page or Don's
Class Listings Page .
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
- Instructor is Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu
) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
- These notes with the Internet links active are posted on http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html
.
- Tips: (1) Easy to put an icon on your desktop for
this, or any, URL; just drag the icon in front of the address in
your browser to your desktop. (2) To open a link from
here in another tab, so you keep your place in these notes, hold
down the Control key when clicking the link.
- The problem: How do you deal with and edit photos from
your camera, screenshots, or scans? Most of our time will be spent
discussing PICASA and PHOTO GALLERY.
- We have dealt with screen captures (screenshots), scans, and
organizing your images in other classes -- see my notes on Screen
Captures and Organizing Your Photos
PHOTOS FROM YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA AND SCANNER
- Preliminaries
- Be sure the date and time and the GPS setting, if it has one,
are correct on your digital camera.
- Be sure your digital photos are backed up somewhere other than
just in your own home, so in a disaster you don't lose them all.
- Use whatever procedures work for you; these are my procedures
and may give you some ideas
- Photos from my camera
- Put the card from the camera into a USB card reader on my
computer
- Go through the photos on the card and delete the ones I don't
want
- Download the remaining photos into a folder for the year, a
subfolder of "Graphics Originals"
- Copy those photos to a folder called "Photos by Date" into a
subfolder labeled for the year and month, YYYY-MM
- Use a freeware program to rename these copies by extracting
the metadata date and time of the photo and putting it in front
of photo name; use date and time as YYYY-MM-DD-HHh-MMm-SSs so
they sort chronologically; a free program that does this is
NAMEXIF from http://www.digicamsoft.com/softnamexif.html
- Add descriptive terms to the photo name after the date and
time, but before the camera numbering (like IMG-####) -- I keep
the camera photo numbering so I can find the photo in "Graphics
Originals", if I ever need to go back to the original
- Images from scanning
- For images of documents and portraits of people I label them
with my naming system so they alphabetize chronologically in
the person's timeline
- Example --
ManwaringDiane(Snow)(1934-2012)-2012-10-10-Death-Obituary-SaltLakeDeseretNews-2012-10-13-Ancestry-com--2014-04-10.pdf
- My naming system -- "SurnameGivenNames(Married name)(birth
year-death year)-(Event date YYYY-MM-DD)-(Event or
Topic)-Description--DateScanned.ext" -- see more details in my
Screen Captures notes
- For scans of photos or slides I usually have to guess at a
date and put that in front
- For archiving I usually scan documents as pdf's and photos
as tif's -- tif is a lossless format, unlike jpg which is a
lossy format
- Before you run PICASA or WINDOWS PHOTO GALLERY set the
preference to tell them which folders to work on or else they find
all photos on your entire hard drive
- Since duplicate photos get indexed more than once, it helps to
move duplicates to a folder the program doesn't work on
- AWESOME DUPLICATE PHOTO FINDER -- http://www.duplicate-finder.com
-- is a helpful freeware program to help you find and delete
duplicate photos
- These procedures take time, but make it easy to find photos by
event, date, person, or location anywhere on your computer by
using the freeware program EVERYTHING -- http://www.voidtools.com/
PHOTO EDITING WITH PICASA
- Free from Google -- http://picasa.google.com
-- see my notes about PICASA's facial recognition in Organizing
Your Photos With PICASA
- Tutorials and helps at http://sites.google.com/site/picasaresources/faq#TOC
-- good place to start learning about Picasa -- also https://support.google.com/picasa/?hl=en
-- Google helps for PICASA -- and free tutorials at http://www.top-windows-tutorials.com/picasa.html
- PICASA does NOT copy or change your photos, only puts links to
them
- Albums are PICASA storage places for information and
links to your photos -- So deleting an album in PICASA only
deletes the links and information and not the photos
- People albums are PICASA links to that person in all
the photos
- Folders are the hard drive storage places for your
photos, so DON'T DELETE A FOLDER in PICASA, unless you want to
delete it and its photos from your computer
- In short: DELETE ALBUMS, NOT FOLDERS in PICASA,
unless you want to get rid of the pictures
- To view the full photo in PICASA double click on a thumbnail --
icons at lower right will show EXIF data, name tags of all people
in tht photo, geographic information, etc.
- When viewing full size photos, rolling the mouse wheel will
change the photo to others in that collection and will change
whatever feature you have set to show in the right panel -- can
also click on the arrows at the top to change photos
- When viewing full photos, the editing icons are in bar in upper
left -- 5 icons in bar for various types of editing features
- Default opens the first bar icon with the commonly used
editing features; other icons in the bar have additional sets of
editing features; most features have automatic settings you can
try; each item has an "undo" feature so those changes can be
removed
- Fill light -- slider bar lightens or darkens the photo
- Cropping -- you select the aspect ratio (4x6, 5x7, manual,
etc.), it puts a rectangle of that ratio on the photo for you to
resize, rotate, or move to where you want to crop the photo;
then click Apply
- Straighten -- puts a grid on the picture with a slider for you
to tilt the photo the way you want
- Red eye -- corrects the red that comes from flash bouncing off
people's retinas when they are looking at the camera
- Many additional editing features, e.g. Contrast, Retouch,
Add/Edit Text, Sharpen, Color Tint, Change to B&W, Change to
Sepia, etc.
- Histogram at bottom left shows how colors enter, if you know
how to use it
- All corrections are only made on links to the photo in PICASA
and not on the photo itself, unless you later save it with the
changes
- If a photo is duplicated and you only work on one copy, the
other will show as originally, so you can compare them
- Easy to do a slide show of an album -- just highlight the album
and click View > Slideshow -- shows the thumbnails or photos
for that album or person
PHOTO EDITING WITH WINDOWS PHOTO GALLERY
- Free from Microsoft, already in Windows XP, 7, and 8, or
download from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/photo-gallery#photogallery=overview
- Tutorials and helps on the download page, e.g. see http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/editing-photos
and http://digitalunite.com/guides/digital-photography/how-to-use-windows-live-photo-gallery
.
- When running for the first time, set it for the folders of
photos you want or it does your entire hard drive; it organizes
the photos by name and date taken
- Can do batch processing by selecting several files
- Bottom right is a slider to make thumbnails larger or smaller --
hovering the cursor over a small photo shows a larger copy of it;
hovering over a large thumbnail shows file name with date and time
the photo was taken
- Double-clicking a thumbnail opens it ready to edit and shows
editing feature buttons across top.
- Editing with PHOTO GALLERY
- Has a Make a Copy button (near the left side), if you want to
start with a copy or make an edited copy at any time
- Edits are made through links to the photo in PHOTO GALLERY and
are kept track of so you can click on Revert to Original button
(top right) to remove all the changes, even months later
- The Fine Tuning button comes up when you first double-click on
a photo -- lists things like Adjust Exposure, Adjust Color,
Straighten Photo, and Adjust Detail
- Straighten puts a grid over photo with a slider for you to
tilt it
- Adjust Exposure shows several sliders to change Brightness,
Contrast, Shadows, and Highlights.
- There is a Histogram showing the colors in the photo and as
you edit it; can use it to set the sliders for best results, if
you know how to use a histogram
- Shadows slider makes things in the shadows brighten up
- Exposure slider shows the photo as if it had been taken with
different exposures
- Auto Adjust button lets program make the changes it thinks are
needed -- Can Revert To Original and start over, if you don't
like the Auto changes
- Crop button allows you to select aspect ratio (4x6, 5x7, or
manual, and resize the crop tool rectangle in the ratio
- Red Eye button corrects red in people's eyes from the flash
reflecting on their person's retinas
- Retouch button allows you to remove slight blemishes by
placing a small rectangle around the spot and clicking so it
looks like the rest of the background nearby
- Noise Reduction button removes graininess where it can
- Other buttons change photo to sepia tones, change color to
black-and-white, and other effects
- Double-clicking on the photo or clicking on Close File saves
the edits in PHOTO GALLERY for that photo, but can revert back
to the original anytime you want, even months later
- Advanced editing features -- on the Create button
- Panorama -- stitches together overlapping photos to make a
single one -- good for large group of people where you can't get
them all in one photo or for landscape too large for one photo
-- stitches horizontally and vertically to make larger picture
- Fuse -- allows you to replace parts of one photo with parts
from other photos taken at same time and place, e.g. can Fuse
(replace) a frowning face with the person's smiling face from
another photo at same time and place
- Create Movie -- can use it to create a video of the photos you
select and add sound track
PHOTO AND IMAGE EDITING WITH OTHER FREEWARE
- PAINT -- Easy-to-use program in most versions of Windows -- go
to Start > All Programs > Accessories > PAINT
- Good YouTube video on Basics of PAINT -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZoWz_owZX0
- A common graphics need is to place two or more images
side-by-side into a single image, e.g. a long newspaper column
clipped so the pieces are side-by-side -- Article on doing this with PAINT -- http://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-7/how-to-combine-two-imagespictures-without-photoshop/
-- Can paste images from clipboard into PAINT and move them to
be side-by-side
- Can also use freeware LibreOffice Draw and paste images
side-by-side, then save file in odg (Open Document Graphics)
format
- IRFANVIEW -- very popular free and easy-to-use photo and image
editor -- available from http://www.irfanview.com
-- click on Downloads; BrotherSoft is a good option for
downloading IrfanView; be sure to download the Plug-Ins too
- Many helpful FAQ's in the link on the IRFANVIEW website
- Helpful pdf article at http://www.ringwoodcc.hampshire.org.uk/Irfanview-2.pdf
- Can do many graphics editing things, resizing, batch
conversions of types, panoramas, etc.
- GIMP -- available from http://www.gimp.org
and with GIMPShop interface from http://www.gimpshop.com/gimp/?gclid=CIH1p9WQtr4CFZJhfgod4y4AZg
- GIMP = GNU Image Manipulator Program -- OpenSource
- Very complete graphics editor like PhotoShop, but free -- many
uses, but has steep learning curve
- GIMP tutorials at http://www.gimpshop.com/tutorials
and Users Manual at http://docs.gimp.org
COMPARISON AND COMMENTS
- Both PICASA and PHOTO GALLERY are very helpful for organizing
your photos and have most of the editing features you need
- PICASA seems to do a little better job with facial recognition
- PHOTO GALLERY has the features of Panorama and Fuse that PICASA
doesn't seem to have
- For simple things or batch conversions of formats IRFANVIEW
works well and is easy to use
- For simple image manipulation, rather than photo editing, PAINT
may be sufficient
- GIMPSHOP (GIMP) is a really powerful graphics editor like the
expensive PhotoShop and has a steep learning curve, but is free.
CONCLUSIONS
- Photos and images are a major part of family history so learning
to work with, label, and edit them is important.
- FamilySearch Family Tree now has a good way to upload, store,
and show photos, but most photos need to be edited before you
upload them so good quality pictures are stored and shown.
CHALLENGE
- Do a simple edit of an image in PAINT to see how
it works.
- Set up PICASA or PHOTO GALLERY and have it consider just one
folder of photos so you can experiment with it. Try editing a
photo with whichever program you try.
- Decide how you want to handle your photo collection, e.g. How
are you going to scan the hard copy photos? Which folder or
folders will you store them in? What naming procedure will
you use? Will you use the facial recognition features of
PICASA or PHOTO GALLERY to help organize them?
Return to the Utah Valley Technology
and Genealogy Group Home Page or Don's
Class Listings Page .