Buxton & District U3A Digital Photography Beginners’ Group 5 November 2013 Lesson 5:Simple Editing © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Programme 19 SeptemberExploring your camera 1 OctoberYou’ve taken some pictures now what? (Viewing pictures; filing on your computer) 15 OctoberPrinting & Composing a better picture (part 1) 29 OctoberCamera modes/scenes & Composing a better picture (part 2) 5 NovemberSimple editing to improve your pictures 19 NovemberUnderstanding exposure 3 DecemberControlling exposure/focal length/perspective/composition for a better picture & Taking Pictures of people 17 DecemberEverything you want to know about digital photography but never dared ask. © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Last Time How to improve my pictures. Camera modes and scenes Composition part 2 – Zoom and perspective © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Last Time - Modes/Scenes Any 2 cameras (even if same manufacturer) will probably have different options So you really need to look at your own camera and manual.

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners 18 mm 1x 39 mm 2x 100 mm 5.5x 250 mm 14x Wide AngleTelephoto SLR Compact Last time – Zoom / magnification / angle of view © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Last time - Perspective (relative size of objects at different distances) How can I make the bollards look bigger? Zoom………. Or get closer. Relative sizes of bollard, car and road sign stay the same. Bollard has got relatively much larger than sign and house. © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Last Time - Perspective – what happens to parallel lines 45mm lens 1 m distance 140mm lens 3 m distance Wide angle and close to front bottle makes closer bottles appear relatively larger so parallel lines running along top and bottom of bottles come together quickly Long focal length and further from front bottle makes closer bottles appear relatively less difference in size so parallel lines running along top and bottom of bottles come together gradually © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Homework 1- Zoom / Magnification 1.Make sure you know how to change the focal length (zoom) on your camera. 2.Take a range of pictures of similar scenes at different focal lengths. i.Find out how to get the focal length information from the camera or on the PC when you have downloaded the picture ii.How much bigger is an object if you double the focal length? 3.Find what is the closest distance you can focus on an object? How does it change as you zoom in and out? © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Homework 2- Experiment with Perspective 1.Experiment with taking shots with different perspective of the same scene: i.Take shots closer with wider angle then move back and take shots with longer focal length. ii.How do the relative sizes of foreground and background objects change? iii.How does this change the emphasis on the objects in the picture? (Composition?) 2.Take pictures looking along a street. Again take shots closer with wider angle lens and further back with longer focal length. i.Find a line joining points of similar heights along the street (e.g. along the top of the buildings or joining 1 st floor windows). ii.Compare this to a line running along the foot of the buildings. iii.How does the angle between these lines compare if I move back to take the shot? iv.How does the angle compare if you stay in the same place and change the focal length? © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners This Time Using Windows Photo Gallery to edit photos – Fixing “Red eye” – Straightening – Cropping – Adjusting exposure – Retouching Using Picasa to edit photos A quick look at what Photoshop can do © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners How to edit in Photo Gallery Double click on a picture to edit © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners This Time Using Picasa to edit photo’s – Fixing “Red eye” – Straightening – Cropping – Adjusting exposure – Retouching A quick look at what Photoshop can do © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners This Time Using Windows Photo Gallery to edit photos – Fixing “Red eye” – Straightening – Cropping – Adjusting exposure – Retouching Using Picasa to edit photos A quick look at what Photoshop can do © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners How to edit in Picasa Double click on a picture to edit © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Picasa editing window Commonly needed fixes Lighting and colour fixes Fun and useful image processing © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Red-eye repair Click to select Redeye repair © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Red-eye repair If Picasa finds a face it will try to fix red-eye. If it doesn’t then it will offer you the option to select each eye that is to be fixed. © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Straightening © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Straightening Slide left to rotate image clockwise Right for anti- clockwise © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Cropping If you don’t like how an image is framed in the photo you can select just a portion. © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Cropping You can manually choose a shape and size of the finished picture Or choose a pre- defined shape © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Crop using “manual” 1. Drag outline to shape, size and position of image you want 2. Look at the preview and adjust outline as necessary 3. When you are happy apply the edit © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Before and after cropping © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Finely-tuned lighting and colour fixes © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Lighting fixes Fill Light At times, photos with bright backgrounds can darken or compromise important details in the photo. Add fill light to the foreground of photos, making them more balanced. Highlights Increase the highlights to amplify the bright spots of your photograph. It can help make the whites in your composition more vibrant. Shadows Darken the shadows in your photo to provide additional depth or contrast. Use this in conjunction with the Highlights slider to add contrast to a flat-looking photo. © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Colour fixes Color Temperature Make your photos warmer by sliding the ticker to the right. This can make your colors more vivid and help bring to life the composition of your photograph. Neutral Color Picker Tell Picasa which part of your photo it should treat as gray or white. Photo Lab will then use that selection to balance the colors in the photo. © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Retouch Use the Retouch tool to remove unsightly blemishes and improve photo quality. It can also help you to restore old photos with marks, water stains, and scratches to excellent condition. © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Retouch Click the Retouch button. Click once to highlight the area you'd like to retouch. A few tips: Adjust the size of your brush using the slider (or use the + and - keys on your keyboard). Use Ctrl-drag to pan across the image, especially useful when viewing your image while zoomed-in. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in on an area you indicate with your cursor. Move the mouse around the image to find and preview a replacement area. Click on the replacement area to finalize. © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners This Time Using Windows Photo Gallery to edit photos – Fixing “Red eye” – Straightening – Cropping – Adjusting exposure – Retouching Using Picasa to edit photos A quick look at what Photoshop can do © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Homework 1.Try editing a few of your own pictures in Windows Live Photo Gallery or in Picasa: Fix red-eye Straighten Crop Adjust exposure Adjust colour 2.Bring any questions along next time © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Next Time Understanding Exposure © Copyright John Estruch

Buxton & District Digital Photography Beginners Course notes I will put this presentation on the Buxton and District U3A website at : Or 1.Go to 2.Select “Groups” 3.Select “Digital Photography: Beginners” 4.Select “materials from previous sessions” from the links on right hand side of page © Copyright John Estruch