how to modify a photo

• how to crop a digital photo & straighten an horizon
• how to remove an object
• how to adjust a photo
• how to sharpen a photo

• Checking for straight horizons and how to crop your photo
• Removing the odd blemish or unwanted object
• Adusting brightness,contrast and colour levels
• Adjusting sharpness

Please refer to the buy photo software section

I must confess that I normally use Adobe Photoshop CS3 to edit my images, which is a very expensive software package and not for the faint hearted, needing many months to get to grips with. So not the best package for begginers. So I bought Photoshop Elements verison 6 which is easily available,( version 7 now available)  user friendly and not too expensive, but after just a few times of using it, it drove me mad, being very slow. However it is a good package and will allow you do do almost anything to modify a photo. For more information click the link>

So I have elected to use another software package which I use inconjunction with Photoshop CS3 called ACDsee Pro ( the standard version is still quite good and you can upgrade to pro later).
This software package is currently available as a download for under £30 and it will do most things a family snapper will want to do, and if you decide later on to move onto something offering a little more, then ACDsee will will be able to link to it and still be great for all sorts of other useful features.

Many programs use very similar tools to carry out the most popular forms of editing please see the example tool bar below. I will offer a more detailed explanation of what the tools do and where they be useful as I work my way through a list of editing jobs.
If you are using a different editing program don't worry, the most used basic editing tools are available in most software packages. With the knowledge that the facility is available so you know what you are looking for, simply put your mouse over the toolbar options and see what the message box tells you, or look in the help file search box for whatever you want to do eg type in "crop". So my first consideration when looking at a photograph, is how much of it do I want to work with, do I want to crop it? Click here to make a start.