The first time I saw a “noise reduction feature” on a camera it confused the heck out of me. I get reducing background noise while shooting a video, but what does noise reduction mean when all I am doing is taking a picture? Noise is tiny spots of discoloration made by the sensor of a digital camera. The best way to explain this is to remember that grainy look of old films. That is very similar to the noise digital cameras produce. So why might so situation create a lot of noise and others so little that you would never even notice?

Remember back in the days before digital cameras and we had to choose the “speed” of the film. The less light you have in the environment, the higher speed of film will be required. Digital cameras also have different speeds; again you use higher speeds for lower light pictures. Unfortunately, these higher speeds also lead to more noise. Many digital cameras have sensors that adjust the speed setting based on the ambient light and you may or may not be able to change these settings manually. Additionally, lower speeds can lead to blurry of your images.

Another major cause of increase noise in photographs is the size of the image sensor. This is a particular problem for very small cameras that have high quality pictures. The sensor size is also small and yet a high quality photo must be produced. This increases the likelihood for errors, or misinterpretation of data.
There are three main ways to reduce noise in photographs. The simplest method is to reduce the size of your pictures. While the noise is still there it is not nearly as visible.

The second method is post-production. Most photo editing software is able to effectively remove the noise from photographs. Sometimes this results in a blurred look in the photograph, while high quality software is able to create a crisply clear finished photo. The final option is an in-camera noise reduction mode. The drawback to this method is if the camera misinterprets important signals for noise your pictures will be negatively altered. Once the picture is taken you cannot add the noise back in, while if your photo editing software makes a mistake you can just start over.

So we now know what noise is and how to remove it, the question remains, should we remove the noise on every photograph? In short, no, there are times when noise reduction is either not needed or will actually diminish the quality of your photograph. For example, in well-lit situations cameras take very quick exposures and the noise level is very low; so, noise reduction should not be necessary. If you are taking a photograph where the tiniest detail is critical a camera’s inboard software may confuse some of those details with noise. In these cases you can try photo editing software but you may still get a better result by leaving the photo untouched.

Some photographers actually use noise in very long exposure time photography to get a specific look for their photographs. As with all photography experimentation and practice will give you the best sense of what noise is and when to use software to fix it.

In my opinion Windows photo gallery is a good program for a beginning photographer to use to touch up their photos. It may not have the widest range of the photo editing options, however, it is easier to navigate than many of the high-end programs.

First, choose the photo you would like to edit and open it in the Windows Photo Gallery Program.

By going to the black bar at the top of the screen and selecting the Fix option, I open up the editing pane on the right side of the window.

Because I want to do something specific to this image, I don’t really want to choose the Auto Adjust option. This option is meant to be a quick fix, although I find it really doesn’t fix most problems.

Adjust Exposure

This option allows you to decide how dark or light you want to make your photo. Clicking on this option opens a drop-down type menu in which you have a sliding controller for brightness and one for contrast.

Sliding the brightness controller to the right lightens my picture a bit.

Then sliding the contrast controller to the right a bit brings back some of the color.

Adjust Color

In this menu there are three sliding bars for; Color Temperature, Tint and Saturation. If you slide the color temperature bar to the left it brings out more of the blue hues in the photo, sliding it to the right brings out the reds. This makes the picture feel warmer or colder, hence the name. Because my picture already feels fairly cold I adjust the slider to the right.

The next bar adjusts the tint of the picture. Moving the slider to the left brings out more green hues and to the right is a pinkish color, neither of these particularly appeal to me so I leave this bar alone.

Last in this menu is Saturation. This bar adjusts how much color there is over all in your picture. Sliding it all the way to the left produces a black and white effect and all the way to the right gives you a color saturation right out of a cartoon. I like the overall natural variation in this photo so I am leaving this one alone for now as well.

Crop Picture

Under this menu is another drop down menu allowing you to choose a sized frame for easier framing of your photo or Custom frame where you are allowed to stretch the cropped area to meet your taste. I choose the 5 x7 frame because I want to set it up on my desk at some point. However, this does not meet my preference when it comes to the content of the picture. Luckily there is a Rotate Frame option. Using this I can perfectly frame in the area of the picture I want saved. 

Fix Red Eye

This option does not really apply to my photo either, however it is a handy tool to have in your arsenal. To use this feature you simply click the title Fix Red Eye then click and drag over the eye or eyes that need fixed.

The last couple of tutorials have been about creating exact effects with photo editing software. However, one of the great things about most editing software is it can be a lot of fun to play around with. In fact, if you have children who complain about getting bored, fire up the editing software select a photo and let them play with it for a while. This will not only keep them entertained but also help them learn about how to use the software. Before you let the kids go wild, make sure to save the original image or you might have problems later.

For this tutorial we will be using an image of some grass and trees in the background. Don’t worry about what you work with, just pick a picture you like.

Perhaps the funnest tools to play with can be found under the filter’s section of most photo editing programs. For example under the filters tab you will see a light and shadow tab. Select this then select gradient flare. Use the various x and y axis to place the flare where you want it. After you have the type of flare and where you want it selected again choose the filters tab.

This time go to artistic and select photocopy. As you can see you now have an interesting black and white picture. From here you can select various paint tools and color it up, or you can print it off and let the kids use it like a coloring book page.

Now close the new image after saving and pull up the original image. Because we are working with a picture that has a lot of green let’s see just how green we can make it look. On the tool bar select the color tab, then click on color balance. Once you have the sliders up, slide the Magenta color all the way to the left. You should now have a very green picture.

The neat thing about editing nature shots is you can play with light a lot. Again select the filters tab on the tool bar, slide down to lighting and shadow, then select lighting effects. This will bring up a dialog box. Take time to play around with not only the type of light, but also various directions and colors.

As you can see from the photo it looks like a comet streaking into a field of grass. This is not the only affect you can get from the lighting effects tool.

In the end, there is so much you can do with image editing software that a single tutorial could not possibly cover it all. However, if you spend some time playing around with images you will get a good idea of what you can do. After a while you will become very good at playing with images. The key to keep in mind as you play around with various images is to not get frustrated. Don’t worry if things are not perfect at first, even the best photo editors in the world have bad days. Just keep playing around, get the feel of the program and pretty soon you will be editing like a pro.

There are literally hundreds of picture editing software programs on the market today. Each of these products promises to be the best you have ever bought for a variety of reasons. However, when put to the test, many of the products fail to live up to their claim which can leave many people feeling frustrated and like they lost money.

Thankfully there is a great piece of software available for free, Gimp. While some claim that Gimp is not a good product for professional’s, there are few arguments that it is a solid piece of software. The following series of articles are not only going to take a look at what Gimp offers, but also give tutorials on how to get started using this wonderful product.

What Gimp Has

Quite honestly Gimp has about everything you could want in image editing software. It allows you to change brightness and contrast, color schemes, and much more. In fact there is very little you can do with other editing software that you can’t do with Gimp. Gimp offers a wide variety of features including a paint program that you can use to create your own work or edit images. Along with the paint feature it also allows you to play with the physics of a picture.

What Gimp Does Not Have

Where Gimp falls short is that it does not provide every feature that some other products do. For example while it does allow you to blur or focus a photograph, it does not do so in the same range as something like Photo Shop. However, overall the lack of a few things is hardly noticeable except to those who really expect a lot out of this kind of software.

Who Gimp Would Work For

Again, Gimp is a solid enough program that it could work for almost anybody. Even if you are involved professionally with image editing and creation there is very little that Gimp can’t provide. If you are an amateur or a professional who has the occasional need to create or edit images, Gimp is about as perfect as you can get. Admitted, if you are someone involved with movies, animation, or other ultra high tech endeavors Gimp probably is not the best choice. Then again, the stuff people in that field of work need costs a lot of money.

In the end, if you are looking for free editing software that provides a lot of bang, Gimp is the way to go. It has most of the features of the brand name stuff like Photo Shop and gives you a lot of flexibility. While there are some people who will insist it sucks because it is free to download, the truth of the matter is that it is a great product. Sure, you probably won’t get a job working on a movie, but if you are looking for something that allows you to edit your own images, Gimp does that for absolutely no cost.

One of the greatest things about image editing software is it allows us the opportunity to be artists without having to have a great deal of talent. While there will always be a need for talented artists, sometimes it is nice to engage in your own creative projects. If you have children, or are trying to think of a good present for a child in your life, try making your own coloring book. Gimp is a free image editing program that takes only a short time to download and the following tutorial will teach you how to make a coloring book with it.

Select an image

The first step to making a coloring book is to select an image. You might want to use photograph’s of the child and the child’s family. If the child has a favorite animal, you could use photograph’s of that. It really only takes a bit of thought to choose a great image for a coloring book.

Bring the Image up in Gimp

After you have decided on the images you want in the coloring book open up the Gimp Program. Now find the tab that says file. Click on it once. You should see a open option. Bring your mouse down to the open tab and click. This will bring up a series of file choices. Find the image you want to edit first, select it, and you should see it in the Gimp program.

Change the image to Black and White

If you are already working with a black and white image, skip this step. If you are working with a color photgraph, the next step is to make it black in white. This is pretty easy. Select the image tab on the toolbar, move down to mode and then select grayscale. As you can see, this should give you a black and white photograph.

Make the Picture a Cartoon

Now that the image is black and white (or grayscale if you prefer) the next step is to make the picture a cartoon. This is actually pretty easy as well. Simply select the filters tab on the toolbar then move down to the artistic tab. After selecting the artistic tab you will see several choices, select cartoon. Once this is selected you will get a preview, select okay. Now you have a cartoonish picture, but we are not quite done yet.

Finishing Touches

The final step is to mess around a bit with the brightness and contrast. Again go to the toolbar and select the color tab. Under the color tab you will find a brightness and Contrast button. Click on the brightness and contrast button. This should bring up an option box that gives you two sliders, one for brightness and the other for contrast. Slide both sliders around a bit until you get something that looks like the picture below.

At this point, you might want to experiment with some of the different functions or simply size to a full sheet of paper and print. Repeat this process for as many images as you want and give them to the intended child with a pack of crayons. Chances are they will really like your home made coloring book.

Very few photographers get a picture perfect one hundred percent of the time. Not only do pictures often come out blurry or too dark, but they can also have random elements appear in them. In the past, mistakes in photograph’s were very expensive to fix, but thankfully we have a wide variety of photo editing software today.

At first it can seem to be a bit overwhelming trying to figure out how to use this software, but the truth is once you know what you are doing, it becomes quite easy. The following tutorial is designed to help you learn how to use image editing software to improve flaws in a photo.

Selecting A Photo

The first step in fixing a photo is to first start with a photo that has at least one issue. For this tutorial I am selecting a photo that is a a bit more dark than what I like and also has some blur that I would like to get rid of.

Making the photo Brighter

The main thing I really don’t like about this particular photo is how dark it is. It was taken outside on a slightly overcast day. One of the quickest ways to adjust the brightness in a picture is to adjust the brightness and contrast. Most image editing programs place the brightness and contrast controls are found under the color tab on the tool bar. If you can’t find it there, try looking under the tools or Filter tab. If you still can’t find it try using the programs help button.

Once you have the brightness contrast controls up, the next step is to take turns sliding each bar up and down the scale until you get the photo looking the way you want. While this photo needed more brightness and contrast, sometimes you will be lowering both, or lifting one while lowering the other. This process often takes a couple minutes of experimenting to get the effect you desire.

Adjusting Color

In the photo we are working with, the mothers complexion seems a little to red. This is a pretty easy fix. Select the colors tab again. Once selected mouse down to the Adjust color balance button. Once this is selected you should get some kind of box with three slides for Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. Fool around a little bit with each color until you get the coloration in the photo you are looking for.

Final Touches

There is still a slight blur in the photo, however without getting overly involved with color distribution, various maps and the like, this is a problem that is probably just going to have to be accepted. The blur isn’t really that bad and did improve with the color adjustment. At this point you might want to fool around with your chosen image for a while to see what the other tools do. However, you might also feel that you have improved your image enough. Either way, congratulations, you now know the basics of improving a photo with picture editing software.

If you were to do a web search on the term photo editing software you would have hundreds of different products to choose from. Given such a large variety of products, all which promise to be the best you can find, it can be an intimidating process choosing the right editing software for your needs. However, by asking yourself a few questions it becomes a simple process to narrow down your choices until you find the product that is right for you.

The first thing you might want to consider is downloading several free versions of different editing software products. These free versions generally only allow you access to certain features but by using it you can get a good idea of what the software does. If you like a particular product you can usually pay for the full version. This is a great way to try something out without risking your hard earned money.

As you are experimenting with your different downloaded products, the most obvious question to ask yourself is how much money are you willing to spend. Photo editing software prices range wildly from free, for products such as Google’s Picasa, to around two hundred dollars for products such as Nikon Capture. Once you know your price point, the next step is deciding how much you want your software to do.

Photo editing software is capable of doing some very amazing things. Some products are able to change a photograph so much that you can barely tell what the original picture was while others are more oriented to giving your photos a touch up. A good piece of advice to follow is always get software that is capable of doing more than you think you will need. This way you are sure to be able to get what you need while still having room to play and develop your editing skills. Once you have a good idea of what you want your software to do, the final step is deciding what features are the most important to you.

Every photo editing software product does some things very well and some things not so well. A great example of this is Nikon Capture. If the only thing you care about is editing a photo with standard tools such as brightening, contrast, and the like, Capture is a great product. However, if you want to do things like change the color of skin, add background elements such as a fairy tale castle, Adobe Photo Shop might be a better choice. Take time to consider this as you try out different products as it will help you make the best decision.

In the end, choosing the right photo editing software does not have to be a painful experience. Luckily most products have a trail download available. If there is not a trail version available there are generally plenty of reviews about editing software products that can help you make a decision. Sure, choosing a good photo editor might take some time, but when everything is said and done, it is time that is very well spent.