How to Edit Digital Photos
like a pro for FREE
Using Free Software to Lighten Dark Images
and
How to Add a Watermark
Good Quality starts with Nice Placement and Focus
To start, you need a good quality photograph, the subject must not be blurry. For small items such as jewelry, that means using a tripod (avoids camera shake), and using the macro setting. I usually have the jewelry really close to the camera (less than 5 inches on a flat surface). On a display or model, I use auto focus and the camera is usually about 3 feet away. I have lots of lights, but no matter what I seem to do, the white turns to gray and the whole photo looks dark.
Worthwhile Time Investment
This tutorial uses the GIMP ver. 2.4.4 but the settings should be similar in the newer versions. There's quite a bit to the learning curve if you've never used an advanced graphics editor before, but it's definitely worthwhile to try.
Gimp is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It was created as the free open source alternative to the more expensive graphics editors such as Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. In the past it was buggy and hard to use, but with each new release it has become easier for novice computer users to try and even people who prefer to use Photoshop to make the transition.
Editing a batch of photos can take as long or longer than taking the images in the first place. But it's worth it to have a good record of your creations, and your customers will thank you as well.
Where to Download
This program can be downloaded by visiting http://gimp.org. Click on the big orange download button near the top of the page. Windows users will want to download the listed binary installer (which is currently 2.4.4).
Step By Step Editing Process
Install the program onto your computer and open the editor.
You will get 2 windows. One with tools and the other has layers and color picker.
At the top of the tool bar Click File>>Open... and open the image you want to edit-- this will create another window.
To make the image suitable for the web: we need to adjust the lighting, remove color casts, and crop the photo to a reasonable size for the screen. If you would like to add a watermark or copyright notice to your photo you can add that as an optional final step.
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- Save As....newfilename
- This will prevent you from saving over your original photo. This should always be your first step. You can always start over fresh if you don't modify the original, but a normal SAVE will overwrite your image and that cannot be undone.
A settings windows will pop up. Make sure to move the slider to 100%, then click Save.
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- Adjust Levels and Color Cast. (At the top of the image window click Colors>> Levels...)
- This brings up a new window, your graph will look different depending on your photo. (Click on the small image to see it at full size.)
Move the white slider until the brightest areas of your photo show up easily, but it doesn't look over exposed.
Then click the little white eyedropper and click the white area of your photo. Adjust the midtone slider if necessary to make the colors true on the screen.
All of these settings are undoable just click "Cancel" and try again or click "Reset" at the bottom of that window. Experiment with the sliders and eyedroppers until the whites are white and the blacks are true black. Click Ok to apply these settings to your image.
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- Crop the photo.
- Click on the tool that looks like an exacto knife.
In the image window, make a box by clicking and dragging with the mouse. Don't worry about the edges, hovering over any of the corners will allow you to place the edges exactly as you desire.
Click in the center of the area and the crop will discard the outer edge of the photo. If you are unhappy with it undo and try again.
Look at the bottom bar of the image window you will see a percentage number. That is the current zoom. Mine is 25% which means my image is actually 4 times larger than what I see. You can also see the pixel dimensions at the top of the image. We need to resize the photo to a more reasonable downloadable dimensions.
500px in width is a great size. Make sure the link to constrain proportions (the little button that looks like a chain linking both numbers together) stays clicked so the image isn't distorted. Now the image will come back and look tiny! go back to that drop down menu at the bottom and adjust the zoom to 100% if you dislike the scaling, just undo and try again. Save and be happy you have just finished editing your photo like a pro!
Apply Watermark or Copyright Notice to your images
Create a new layer by clicking on the little paper icon in the layers window.(It's about half way down the screen just above the color picker.)
An options window will pop up with the current dimensions just click Ok. This will create a new transparent layer we will use later.
Click on the big A in the tool window to type some text on your image. Adjust the settings in the menu pick the font, the size, etc. Or, if you have a logo image that you would like to add instead put copy and paste that image onto the blank layer and continue.
Right click on the layer with text and merge it with the blank layer. Text is sometimes treated differently in graphical progams to make it easy to edit, but this can it makes it hard to do effects. Merging down will transform the text back into normal pixels so it is treated like an image again.
If you want the watermark to be more subtle try changing the layer mode. They are easy to try if you don't like them just switch it back to the "normal" setting. (The layer mode is near the top of the layer tool bar and is the drop down menu next to the word Mode.)
Another option you can try is to move the opacity slider which is located right below the mode dropdown menu.
Right click on the bottom layer and select Flatten Image to remove the layers.
Save the file as a .jpg.
Congrats you just finished editing your photo like a pro for FREE!
