This chapter is intended to educate about different image-editing tools. The information presented here is not specific to the user interface of any particular image-editing program. An Overview of Your Image-Editing Toolbox Image-editing is one of the most fun and creative activities you can undertake with your PC. You probably already have dozens of ideas as to the types of projects you’d like to accomplish with your scanner. In creating most of your projects, you’ll make use of image-editing tools from one or more of the following categories: Cropping and positioning tools These types of tools allow you to cut off part of your photo, or resize the entire picture without losing any of its content. You can also reposition, rotate, and create a mirror image of your photo, depending on the range of these features your image-editing program offers. Correction tools You can virtually go back in time to fix what went wrong at the point you snapped the photo. Image-editing tools allow you to compensate for the effects of overexposed film or a blurry, unfocused image. A tool that corrects the red-eye effect from a flash is my personal favorite. Repair tools These program features allow you to take care of damage that can occur to a photo after it’s developed—scratches, stains, wrinkles, spills, and other wear and tear. Pixel cloning tools Did you ever wonder what people meant when they talked about “airbrushed” photos? Airbrushing is taking colored dots (called pixels) from a surrounding area of a photo and using them to cover something you don’t want to appear in the finished picture. The color insert illustrates the use of a cloning tool to take care of a model’s bad hair day and smeared lipstick by covering the wayward locks and runaway makeup with pixels from surrounding areas in the photo. Colorizing tools These tools allow you to give subtle or bold impact to a photo by selectively applying color. You can also enhance or create a mood by tinting a photo. The color insert has examples of both these techniques. Composition tools These tools allow you to cut and paste photos on your screen, and create a single picture from multiple images. CHAPTER 10: Which Photo-Editing Tools Are Useful for Specific Tasks 159 10 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Painting and drawing tools Most image-editing applications have drawing and painting tools that allow you to superimpose lines, shapes, and other markings. Other special effects Some image-editing programs offer special effects that allow you to distort photos (as if you were looking into one of those fun house mirrors) and create interesting visual effects such as fog, wind, and rain. These features are not specifically discussed in this book, but if you’re interested, you should look for these features when comparing image-editing programs. Also check to see if they’re included with software you’ve already purchased. Cropping and Resizing Your Photos You can alter the size of your photos by cropping (cutting) material from around the edges, or by shrinking or expanding the entire photo without altering its content. The ability to alter the size of your photo is particularly useful when you’re creating a project, such as a greeting card, for which you need a photo that fits nicely within the finished piece. Locating a Cropping Tool Cropping allows you to remove portions of the photo that surround your main subject. Cropping is such an important feature that your scanning software—as well as your image-editing software—usually comes with this capability. As you might recall from Chapter 2, scanner software is the program that allows you to control the functioning of your scanner using an interface that appears on your computer desktop. When the Cropping Tool Is Useful Lopping off part of your photo with a cropping tool can achieve the following: Focusing more attention on your subject matter By getting rid of extraneous background, your subject appears larger and more prominently in a photo of the same size. Getting rid of distracting or irrelevant background Is your picture of you and your fiancé on the sunset beach ruined by an unknown passerby you didn’t notice at the time of the shot? You might be able to rid yourself of the unwanted intruder by simply cropping him or her out of the photo. 160 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Correcting an off-center photo Do you have trouble centering your subjects when you take a photo? Cropping allows you to change the center of the photo by lopping a bit off one side or the other. Eliminating worn or damaged edges Torn corners and frayed edges can be fixed using some editing tools discussed later in the “Fixing Scratched, Torn, Wrinkled, and Stained Photos” section; however, it might be easier to just trim them off with your image-cropping tool. A Sample Cropping Job Figures 10-1 and 10-2 show a photo before and after cropping. Notice how cropping the photo both gets rid of extraneous background and focuses more attention on the main subject of the picture. FIGURE 10-1 A photograph before cropping CHAPTER 10: Which Photo-Editing Tools Are Useful for Specific Tasks 161 10 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. FIGURE 10-2 Cropping the photograph makes the subject appear larger and more prominent. Cropping Tips Cropping is an easy job, regardless of which image-editing program you might be using. Consult the Help menu to find out how to locate the cropping tool. Most cropping tools display your photo within a set of boundary lines on the screen, and you indicate where you want to crop the photo by moving the boundary lines. 162 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when cropping a photo: ■ Make sure that you’ve selected a cropping tool, rather than a resizing tool. Resizing will increase or decrease the size of the entire photo without removing any unwanted areas. ■ Save your original image to a separate file before you begin cropping, and make sure you’re satisfied with the effects of your cropping before saving the newly cropped image. Most image-editing programs have an Undo feature (like the one that comes with Microsoft Word) that allows you to restore your original photo; however, you cannot use the Undo feature once you’ve saved your cropped photo. ■ When cropping an unwanted background object, don’t crop so much from one side that your photo is off center. If you can’t crop the offending object and keep your subject centered, consider using the clone tool, discussed later in this chapter, rather than the cropping tool, to remedy the problem. ■ Remember that if you crop a photo, the size will not change. The remaining portions of your image will fill the same dimensions as your original photo, resulting in a lower overall resolution. This might be an issue affecting the quality of your final project if you crop a large area from a photo that was originally scanned at a low resolution. Resizing a Photo Resizing a photo is a process that involves a different tool from cropping. When you resize, you retain all the subject matter in the original photo, but change the size of it. Depending on the program you’re using, you might have more than one option as to how to resize your photo. Some programs have resizing tools that enclose your photo within a boundary box (like the cropping tools). You move the boundary lines around the photo to make the photo smaller. This type of resizing can be difficult to use because you have to adjust the height and width manually and in precisely the same proportions to avoid distorting the photo. Figures 10-3, 10-4, and 10-5 illustrate how this type of distortion alters the appearance of your subjects. CHAPTER 10: Which Photo-Editing Tools Are Useful for Specific Tasks 163 10 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. . able to rid yourself of the unwanted intruder by simply cropping him or her out of the photo. 160 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove. menu to find out how to locate the cropping tool. Most cropping tools display your photo within a set of boundary lines on the screen, and you indicate where you want to crop the photo by moving. lines. 162 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when cropping a photo: ■ Make