Post by fishme on Apr 22, 2009 11:34:39 GMT -6
This is something very basic and no doubt many of you already know about, but for those who don't, there is more than likely a program on your computer that can help out with your photography. It's called "Microsoft Office Picture Manager" and it is included in most computers as part of the Microsoft Office Suite. This comes on most modern computers.
It has a lot of capabilities but one function in particular does a good job enhancing photos and its as simple as clicking on a button. I'll try to give you a step-by-step on how to use it:
1) It's easy to see if your computer has the program. When you get ready to open a picture on your screen, instead of double clicking on it, you need to use the right button on your mouse. This will open a box with options. Scroll down to "Open With" and click. This gives you a list of programs on your computer that can open the picture. If you see "Microsoft Office Picture Manager", click on it, and the picture will open.
2) When the picture opens, there will be a toolbar at the top with several options. One of them is "Auto Correct." Click this and the program autmatically makes adjustments in color, lighting, contrast etc. There are many things this program can do, but I'm just sticking to this very basic one because I think it can be the most help in our particular usage...taking aquarium and fish photos. Keep in mind it can only do so much. Sometimes I take a pic that's so bad that nothing can really enhance it....lol
3) Now, when you get ready to save the pic after hitting the "Auto Correct" button, go to the top line of options, and under "File", hit "Save As" and rename the picture in the dialog box that pops up. Then hit save on the dialog box. This allows you to save the new, adjusted photo as a separate file, which means you will still have your original unchanged.
Here is an example of a pic I took of some rocks in my tank a few minutes ago. I purposely chose a pic where the changes were more subtle, mostly filling in the dark areas since that would seem to be something most helpful in our hobby. I think you can see the difference, and the only thing I did was to use the "Auto Correct" button on the second pic:
If anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to try to answer, though I'm not by any means an expert with the program.
It has a lot of capabilities but one function in particular does a good job enhancing photos and its as simple as clicking on a button. I'll try to give you a step-by-step on how to use it:
1) It's easy to see if your computer has the program. When you get ready to open a picture on your screen, instead of double clicking on it, you need to use the right button on your mouse. This will open a box with options. Scroll down to "Open With" and click. This gives you a list of programs on your computer that can open the picture. If you see "Microsoft Office Picture Manager", click on it, and the picture will open.
2) When the picture opens, there will be a toolbar at the top with several options. One of them is "Auto Correct." Click this and the program autmatically makes adjustments in color, lighting, contrast etc. There are many things this program can do, but I'm just sticking to this very basic one because I think it can be the most help in our particular usage...taking aquarium and fish photos. Keep in mind it can only do so much. Sometimes I take a pic that's so bad that nothing can really enhance it....lol
3) Now, when you get ready to save the pic after hitting the "Auto Correct" button, go to the top line of options, and under "File", hit "Save As" and rename the picture in the dialog box that pops up. Then hit save on the dialog box. This allows you to save the new, adjusted photo as a separate file, which means you will still have your original unchanged.
Here is an example of a pic I took of some rocks in my tank a few minutes ago. I purposely chose a pic where the changes were more subtle, mostly filling in the dark areas since that would seem to be something most helpful in our hobby. I think you can see the difference, and the only thing I did was to use the "Auto Correct" button on the second pic:
If anyone has any questions, I'll be happy to try to answer, though I'm not by any means an expert with the program.
