Knowing how to crop, retouch, and enhance your images is a well-kept secret for taking great photos.

A good photo can become a better photo with photo editing tools. Even if your main camera is your mobile phone, you can use find photo organizing software for computer all  to make these pictures look like masterpieces. If you take a picture with your mobile phone, set the setting to the highest quality value to get a large enough file to print and/or share.

When composing your image, be sure to include all of the images you capture. Unless you are a professional photographer, do not attempt to crop using the viewfinder. Take the whole picture and crop it later. Capturing the whole picture is really important because I’ve found that some cell phones and digital cameras’ viewfinders aren’t accurate. What you see in the viewfinder may not match what you see on your camera.

Oops!

Better to take a little more of your subject than too little. Everyone’s seen those pictures where you’re like, “What happened to Aunt So-in- so’s head?” The best editing software in the world won’t be able to render what your viewfinder couldn’t see. On the other hand, if you have more images than you need, your image editing software will always let you crop away too much Easter hat.

Then download the image to your computer’s photo editing software according to the instructions provided by your specific phone camera. Once you see the image in the software, copy and save images from the phone before deleting the images from your phone. Here’s a tip: give pictures memorable names. Your cellphone or digital camera gives them a meaningless digital name.

Open in software

Then copy this image. and keep the copy of the original open in the software so you can compare it to what you’re editing. I always work from a copy and save changes to my computer as I go. Choose a related but slightly different name for your edited copy so you don’t lose the original. If at any point I don’t like any of the enhancements I’ve made to the copy, I can go back to the original image I saved in my photo editing software without having to go all the way back to my phone or digital camera.

Usually you don’t have to do much to enhance an image. I always just play around with the contrast and color settings before setting them. When I’m happy, I save the changes. There are many other tools in photo editing software that I have never used. With a little experimentation, you might find something useful in the tools menu.

Use photographs as illustrations in online press releases and articles

The most fun I’ve ever had with photo editing software has been my family’s amazing ability to restore old neglected photos that have been exposed to natural light, dust, human handling and insects causing fading, cracking and deterioration. That’s correct. No more ruining original images trying to salvage them.

Old family photos were most likely made from negatives. There are discs or digital files. We’re sorry. Believe it or not, there are people on this earth who don’t know what a photo negative is, let alone what to do with it. Also, the reproduction of black and white prints from negatives has become a specialty service. A few photo labs still exist that do this job, but they ‘re becoming rarer in the digital age we’re all immersing ourselves in. I found a scanner that scans old photo negatives. What darling!

No negatives to the pictures

Most of the time, however, there are no negatives to the pictures in your family’s photo collections, which are in closets, under beds, and in attics. The negatives have long been lost or were never in the hands of the family. There were no negatives in my family’s photo collection as many of the old images were taken in studios, by traveling photographers, or at events such as fairs and carnivals. Some of these images are more than a hundred years old. There are many old pictures and most people want to know how to share these pictures with other family members.

Well, you can scan them. But look what you have. The cracks are still there and the images are still faded. Keep in mind that scanning exposes the photo to intense light that can further fade the image. Many old photographs are already faded and this extra light only degrades the quality of the photograph. So scan correctly the first time. Then place the picture in a cool, dark place.

Learn photographic restoration

In addition, I encourage you to learn photographic restoration skills as I do. Knowing how to use photo editing software has been a lifesaver in my career and has created a new source of income. I literally turned old, worn out pictures into pictures that look like they belong in a gallery. Even images with hardened tape over a person’s face can be greatly enhanced.

DO NOT remove the tape from an original photo or even try! Removing tape or other repair material will destroy the image by disrupting the contact between the photo paper and the photo emulsion. Photo emulsion is the substance that allowed the image to stick to the paper in the first place.

DO NOT attempt to clean original photos

Removing any surface material will affect the adhesion of the emulsion to the paper. You would think that was common sense. But I know people who have washed their photos with soap and water and then wondered if I can recover an image they made disappear.

Handle all photos, new and old, with the utmost care and only touch the edges as fingertips contain oils that leave harmful chemicals and invisible residue on the photo that can destroy the image. When you create digital images, be sure to organize them so that they can one day find their way out of the camera. Place digital images on a CD for easy printing and sharing, or upload to a sharing website. All those holiday, baby or wedding pictures are useless if nobody ever sees them.

Using image editing software

I scan images for my clients to create digital files. Working on the find photo organizing software all  scanned copy, I am able to remove lines made by tape and pencil marks that bled through the original paper when Aunt So-and-so wrote on the back of the picture who was in the picture.