by David Peters

Create depth of field: You can quite easily add depth of field to the images that you have taken “snaps” of. If you have an image that is completely in focus and the background too is in focus (a common effect of non SLR digital point and shoot cameras) the you can solve this using Photoshop. You simply draw a mask or make a selection around the subject, invert that mask so that it selects all but the subject and apply a blur effect to the part of the image that is selected. In the later versions of Photoshop there is actually a filter that emulates the natural lens blur. The end result is a sharp, in focus subject with an out of focus background. This can be very effective and can draw attention to the subject. Microsoft Office Picture Manager is the Microsoft Office System 2003 tool you can use to manage, edit, and share your pictures. Picture Manager works with a variety of file formats, including: .jpg, .gif, and .bmp. Where is Picture Manager? To open Picture Manager, on the Start menu, point to All Programs, then to Microsoft Office, and then to Microsoft Office Tools, and then clicEk Microsoft Office Picture Manager

- Photoshop - This digital picture editing program is certainly not cheap, but is considered to be the awesome editing tool of professional digital photographers. Unfortunately Photoshop is also not so easy to learn completely to benefit from the high cost for most photographers. The good news is that due to the popularity of the program, and the real benefits Photoshop offers serious digital photographers there are many ways one can comfortably learn Photoshop techniques either in your own time on the internet or off line though regular classes offered by certified professionals. Photoshop is in reality the desk top darkroom for digital photographers. Photoshop takes digital photography to new levels by going beyond necessary photo editing requirements. Photoshop users are able to take their not so successful photographs to become the base of new digital art by allowing the user to apply extreme manipulations and effects turning a useless image into an artistic creations.

Ebay is a commonly used auction program that most of the time uses pictures to sell the items it lists. Pictures are the best sellers, “pictures say a thousand words” as the saying goes. To take some really good pictures for ebay that look proffessional, it isn’t that hard, here are few tips: Avoid underexposing your photos, especially if you’re shooting against a white background or outside in bright light. Your digital camera should have an over/under expose button that allows you to compensate and adjust the exposure. When taking pictures against a white background you might want to increase the exposure by 1 so that it lets more light into the camera and the background becomes a pure white. Getting close and filling the frame with your subject will produce a better photo, and also help avoid clutter. Buyers like to see the details of what they are buying. The best way to take good close-up photos is to use your cameras macro setting, which is designed to focus at short distances.Your product should be sharp and in focus. Take care to focus correctly. Auto focus on your digital camera may not always produce the best results as it can sometimes be fooled. In these cases use aperture priority mode, and set an aperture of 8 or higher to ensure that your entire photo is sharp. When you increase the aperture your camera compensates with a slower shutter speed, so remember to use a tripod.

When it comes to exporting its images, Photoshop allows seamless program shifts among other Adobe software used in image editing, authoring and animation such as Adobe Illustrator, ImageReady and After Effects. Photoshop files (.PSD or Photoshop document format) may be manipulated to produce special effects such as adding textures and changing backgrounds. Non-linear editing is also a breeze. Another advantage of Photoshop is that it can work with several color models such as RGB, CMYK, Lab, Bitmap, Duotone and Grayscale. This allows any user a lot of flexibility in terms of image editing, giving him the power to play with every type of photo image there is. The newest version of Photoshop is v. 10, also known as CS3. It’s integrated with Adobe Creative Suite, hence the ‘CS’. The most popular, though is the CS2 which was made available in 2005. It has successfully integrated new tools and former plugins like color replacement, warping and multiple-layer select.

If you think that you will be using a lot of photoshop and will are a hobbiest with the photoshop, then photoshop elements will be right for you. Save you money up and get it because it has more options than the Photoshop CS has. Some of those options include: Lens Blur Filter, Vanishing Point Tool, Pen tool and paths palette, Some adjustment layers (curves, color balance, selective color, channel mixer), Editing History Log, Text on a path, advanced text formatting, Advanced Layer Style manipulation, Advanced Color Management, Advanced Web features and ImageReady (rollovers, slicing), Customizable tool presets, keyboard shortcuts, and menus. In the features and tools that are shared, the Photoshop version usually offers more advanced options for fine tuning and control.

The Eyedropper tool (the icon in the Toolbar) is used to sample a color from an image to use this color further. It’s practical as it facilitates color selection, for example, an appropriate color for the skin or the sky. Tip: When you pick a color with the Eyedropper tool, it appears as the foreground color in the Toolbar. If you want to pick a color for the background hold the ALT-key while selecting the color with the Eyedropper tool. Below you see the foreground/background palette of the Toolbar.

Artistic and other creative effects can be applied to all or parts of a digital image using filters. Filters are part of many image editing programs. Filters effects can make a photo look like a oil painting, water colour or pencil sketch. Add a canvas, burlap or other textured background if you would like. There are filters to blur, sharpen, distort and add or remove noise

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