The Perfect Picture: Software to helpThe Perfect Picture:
Software to help when your pics aren't what you expected.
Are you having problems with some
of your photo's? Not everyone is a great
photographer. We can't all get that perfect lighting, or that
perfect angle and in today's economy, it may not be easy to afford a
Professional Photographer for that perfect picture.
I
read a BLOG recently
asking for feedback/critique on a picture of a house.
A couple of replies had to do with the very light areas of
the photo, referred to as a "washed out" look. If you are
having trouble taking the kind of pictures you want, there is still
hope for you as there are a number of software programs that let you
work with specific parts of your picture.
The
picture on the left
(below) is the picture posted on the blog I mentioned requested
critique. Notice
the bright spots. When I was reading the blog and the
comments, I realized that I have software that can help with this.
It is Microsoft
Digital Image Suite 10.
My software is several years old, so I am sure it has been
updated several times, but with this software, I am able to take those
light areas and darken them up, or if need be, I can play with various
other elements to help improve the picture quality.
In
this particular shot,
I chose to darken up the light areas of the house (see pic on the
right), which would be the roof and the walls. There is also
a light area in the grass just in front of the house and I chose to
darken that just a bit too, helping to eliminate some of the washed out
appearance. True, this is not perfect, but realize, this is
the first time I have played with this function of this software.
With a little effort, I am sure I could make this look much
better. I wanted to post this information to let those who
read this know that you can easily edit your pictures. I
found this program to be user friendly as I was able to quickly figure
out how to accomplish this task.
The
picture below (left)
was on the website of our Active Rain blogger who was requesting
critique. I chose to darken the roof just a bit, but I also
choose to darken the lawn, bringing out the green in the grass.
While playing with the software, I learned that I could
totally remove the sidewalk and the program filled in the area with
grass perfectly. I couldn't tell the picture had been
tampered with. I didn't post that particular picture, but
just wanted to let you know that is just another of the functions you
can perform with this software.
Below...I
just added a border
to the picture of this house, trying to jazz it up a bit. The
program has many borders available and the colors can be altered as
well as the various levels of thickness. A lot can be done
with this software. I realized today I need to play with this
software a lot more, it has lots of possibilities.
If any of you choose to purchase
the
software I used to edit these photos, and have trouble
figuring out how
to do what I did, just write or call, I'll be glad to help.
If I get
enough requests, I will write a blog with instructions.
While on the subject of
software...how many of you have been looking for software
that allows you to pull a person out of the picture so that you can add
that person to a different picture. If that question seems a
bit vague, just look at my picture here on Active Rain. I
pulled myself out of one picture, and placed myself into another
picture. I can easily change that background over and over
again, and I have already done so about 10 times and now have pictures
I can rotate here. I can have a different house in the
background every day if I want to.
To do this, I am using Photo
Impact Pro (Version 10). Rather than pulling
myself out of the picture, I actually remove the background, and insert
another background, or once the background has been removed, I can drag
my pic over to another picture. Perhaps you have a picture of
a house you would like to use, but don't like the surroundings of the
house and want to get rid of the background? Now you can.
You may want to leave the shrubs in the front though, or you
would have blank white spots where you removed them.
I bought both of the
above programs several years ago.
MS Digital Image Suite cost me $48.57 while Photo Impact Pro cost me
$65.07. I got both programs at Sams Club. I've seen
the Digital Image Suite at much higher costs in other stores.
I am not sure how much these programs cost today. I
assume they are still available.
As a
side note, I am sure some of you have been reading the various blogs
about copyright issues. In staying in accordance with the
rules of Active Rain and also in accordance with copyright laws,
although Mindy did request a critique of her photo, I did ask
permission to make adjustments and to post her photo in this blog.
12 Comments on THE PERFECT PICTURE: Software to help when your pics aren't what you expected
NOV
13
2008
I've used free programs like Adobe PhotoAlbum that came with my photo printer, and online tools such as www.picnik.com. I'd love to have a photo editing suite but I'm not there yet. Although $50-70 isn't so bad if it is a great program.
Thanks Yvette - Little things always seem to make a big difference. I wish I was one of those people with a really good eye for taking pictures. I've seen people take a pic of something and then wonder why I couldn't get that same shot...hmmmm....it just doesn't seem fair. So someone like me invented these great programs to help even the playing field...I'm convinced of it!
Thanks for sharing information about these programs with us! I like how you can lighten or darken certain areas of photos with the MS digital image instead of being forced to brighten the entire picture. I will have to look into this more!
Hi Mindy - Let me know how well photoshop works. I haven't tried that program but I have heard of it. I think somebody gave me an older version which I have around here somewhere, but didn't reload when my computer crashed since I never used it.
Hi Patricia - I thought that was a pretty good feature too. I remembered seeing something about that on the box when I was looking at it recently and when Mindy posted her blog I had to go and see if I could do that....and it turns out I can. I really like that this program is user friendly. I have another program that is so un-user friendly that I really don't even fool with it anymore. It's hard to figure out even with the instructions, so when I find a user-friendly program, I'm like a kid in a candy store. It's funny how us men are so easy to please, put some kind of tool in our hands, or an easy to use piece of technology, or food, or....well, let's keep this on a business level.
Tami - You're welcome! There are lots of programs out there, some are very expensive though. It took me some time to find a couple that had some decent stuff without having to pay an arm, leg, and 1 ear.
Dona - If you go to Sam's and they still carry this software, could you throw us a price update please.
I wish I could pay a professional photographer. I would love to tell the client at the listing presentation that I will send the professional photographer tomorrow. :)
On the topic of modifying the photo, we are getting set up with Obeo www.Obeo.com (why is the link function not activated?). With that we will be able to allow the client to change the colors of the walls, cabinets, floor, etc. We hope it will really help get more traffic to our listings.
In several of my previous vocations, as well as one of my current vocations, I had to be a Power Photographer, so I bought Corel Draw, Corel Photopaint, and Adobe Photoshop. I still use them on a daily basis.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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I've used free programs like Adobe PhotoAlbum that came with my photo printer, and online tools such as www.picnik.com. I'd love to have a photo editing suite but I'm not there yet. Although $50-70 isn't so bad if it is a great program.