I was asked about this and thought it would made a good addendum to the last two posts. How to you take a shot of what is on a computer screen and how do you edit it? I answered this question a while ago in this post, but you can also edit the screen shot in MS Picture Manager.

Here's how:

Make sure the screen image is as you want it to appear and press the Print Screen (Prt Scr) on your keyboard - usually to the right of the main keyboard and above the insert key.

Go in to MS Picture Manager and choose Paste from the Edit menu. The image will be pasted into whichever location is selected in the Shortcuts panel on the left hand side. To find the pasted image click on the selected folder under Shortcuts and search though the contents to find your screen shot. When you have found it, double-click and the image will come up in the central pane. Now you can edit it as described in this post. Make sure you click on Save to make the edits permanent.

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In my last post I introduced you to the editing features of Microsoft's Picture Manager software that comes with Office 2007.

Today we will look at how we can use the programme to organise our pictures and send them to other people.

File management

You can easily do some file management while using this programme. To delete images simply click on the image in the central window, and choose the delete button up in the top toolbar represented by a large cross symbol. You will be asked if you are sure you want to delete the file. Click Yes. The image will now be deleted. To move an image from one folder to another, make sure that you have both folders listed in the shortcut panel on the left. Find the image you want to move, click and drag it over the destination folder on the left and when that folder is highlighted, release the mouse button. A copy of the file is now placed in the destination folder. Check it is there before you go back and delete the original. Another way of moving a file is to right-click over the original, choose cut, move to the destination folder and click on paste. The image will be cut from the original folder and pasted into the destination folder.

Inserting images into emails and documents
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Usually in a programme like MS Word, or any of the other office programmes, you can choose Insert-Picture, and file manage to your image in Windows. Another way of inserting images is to have the document open and insert it from Picture Manager. Select the image you want to insert, go to File and choose Send To - Microsoft Office (see right). You should see the open document listed so click on the Send button and it will insert the image where the cursor is placed in the document. Alternatively, when sending to a blank Office document, choose which programme you want to insert the image in, and click on Send (note that if you click on the Options link you will be able to change the size).

You can email your image by going to File-Send To and choosing Email. You will be given the Email Task Pane on the right of the screen. Complete the options and click on Create Message. The selected image should then be inserted into an empty email ready for you to address and send.

If you find these features greyed out it means you didn't select an image to send!

I hope you find that a useful summary of software that you may not have used before. 
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I came across the MS Picture Manager recently and was reminded what a useful tool it can be, especially if you don't have access to an image editing programme. The next two posts will take you through some of the handy features.

First we will look at exploring the windows. Below you will see a screen shot of the main window:
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The panel on the left hand side is the shortcuts panel. To hide it, click on the Shortcut's button just above it. Click again to get it back. By default you will see the image files saved in your My Pictures folder in My Documents. Your ICT department may have changed the default settings, but this is the standard before any customisation.

If you have a folder of images saved elsewhere you can click on 'Add Picture Shortcut...' , find the folder containing the images and then click on Add. You should see the folder listed in the Picture Shortcuts panel and the contents of the folder displayed in the middle window.

You can change how large the images appear in the central window by using the slider at the bottom right (note this does not change the actual size of the image). You can also change how the images are viewed by clicking on one of the three buttons in the top left corner of the central pane.

Editing an image

Use the shortcut panel to find the folder that contains the image you want to edit, and click on it to show its contents. When you see the desired image double-click on it and it should fill the middle window. You can hide the shortcuts panel if you wish by clicking on the Shortcuts button at the top left.
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On the right hand side of the screen you see the task pane. Here I have clicked on the Properties task pane from the drop down arrow at the top of the pane (see left) and you can see the size of the file, where it resides and even what model of camera took the photo!

If you choose the Edit Pictures pane from the drop down, you will see a list of editing tools to change the colour, contrast, cropping, and a few other options that are very useful. Experiment with each one in turn. Move the sliders to see the effects on the image in your main window. When you want to try the next edit option click on Back to Edit Pictures at the bottom of the pane.

Resizing and cropping

Note the difference between cropping and resizing an image. Cropping will slice off the edge of the image that you identify. Move your mouse over the handles around the edge and drag inwards. The shaded area will be cut from the image. To retain all of the image but make it smaller you need to resize. The easiest way to choose the resize option and to insert a percentage less than 100 in the fourth option down. Otherwise, if you know the dimensions you want in pixels you can enter the numbers in the box for custom width x height. The Predefined width and height option offers some standard dimensions which might be useful.

When you have finished making all your changes, click on Save to ensure that the changes are made to the original image.

In the next post I will cover file management and sending images by email, from MS Picture Manager.
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I did promise last week a post on improving your selections in Photoshop, as a round up on this topic.  I am using Photoshop Elements 6 so the techniques might be slightly different in other versions, but the principles are the same.

When you make a basic selection using one of the techniques mentioned in previous posts, if you make a change to the selected area the outline can seem a bit sharp, a bit like someone has taken a pair of scissors to the image and just plonked the newly edited section down on top.  The way around that is to 'feather' the selection.  This is an image editing term which really just means to soften the edges a bit to blend in with the unedited parts of the image.

When you have made the desired selection, go to the Select menu and choose Feather.  Most selections will benefit from 1 or 2 pixels, but if an image is really big you might need to make it 5 or 6.  Click on OK and you selection will be softened.  Continue with your editing.  If the result is not as smooth as desired, use your Undo History palette to step back and redo the feathering with different settings.
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For more flexibility go to the selections menu and choose Refine Edge.  If you wish click on the custom overlay button at the bottom left which will put a red mask over the unselected area allowing you to see more clearly how your edges are affected by your adjustments in the window.  You can now experiment with the sliders to get the desired results (when you hover your mouse over each slider a description is provided at the bottom of the dialogue box. 
Feathering has already been covered, but you can use the contract/expand slider to remove edges, sometimes referred to as 'fringing' where you get a white edge around your image.  When you have made your adjustments, click on OK and make your changes.  Again, use you Undo History if necessary to fine tune the process.

It really is worth taking some extra time to get this part right.  The results will be much more realistic (if that is what you are looking for!)
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The tools we looked at in the last two posts can be used to make global changes to your photos (meaning you change the entire image).  However you can also use them to make changes to parts of your image.  The trick is to select the area you want to change, and then use the tool as directed.  Here's how to select (again these tools work in most other image editing programmes).
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The selections tools in Photoshop Elements are in the second segment down on the toolbox on the left (assuming your settings are the default layout).  This is what they look like:
Starting from the top, the first tool is the square/eliptical selection tool, and you can see them both in the flyout menu.  Some of the tools in the toolbox share a location and you can identify these by the little triangle in the bottom right.  Click on this triangle and you will get a flyout menu such as shown in the screen shot above.  Select the tool you want to use, move the mouse over your image, click and drag and you should get a dotted line (aka marching ants) surrounding part of your image.  This selected area is the part of the image that will be altered.

The second set of tools are for selecting areas that are less uniform in shape.  The first in the set of three is useful for doing freehand selections.  The second one in the set is the magnetic selection tool and it will follow a line in colour difference.  Over your image, click, release the mouse button, and move the mouse along a line of colour and it will automatically lay down a selection line along the edge of the colour.  The third button down is the polygonal lasso tool.  Click over your image, release the button, move to a new location and press the mouse button again and it will put down a new anchor point.  To remove anchor points press the delete key on your keyboard.  To close up a selected area, double-click.

The final, but most powerful of the selection tools is the magic wand.  This selects pixels in your image of a particular colour.  
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When you select this tool, look to the toolbar at the top of the window.  
If you put a tick next to Contiguous it will only select pixels of that colour that are touching.  If you leave the box empty it will select all the pixels of that colour in the image.  Change the tolerance setting to alter the sensitivity of the colour selection.

That's an overview of selection techniques. It is an important skill so I recommend you familiarise yourself with these tools.  Next week I will cover how to refine your selections so that your edits don't look obvious.
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Yesterday we looked at how you can change the contrast of a photo using the levels tools, which can also help to remove colour casts.

Today we are going to look at changing the colours in an image.  Open a photo to play around with if you can.
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Go to the Enhance menu and choose Adjust Color and then Adjust Hue/Saturation.  Again, this is a tool that is available in most image editing programmes.

You will get this dialogue box (left).

When you move the top slider the colours in the image will change.  If you have selected a part of the image, only the colours in this area will change.  Thus, if you want to change one  particular area in your image, select it first and then use this tool to change it to the desired colour.

The middle slider strengthens the colour when you move it  to the right, and weakens it when you move it to the left.  

The bottom slider is another way (other than levels) to change the number of dark and light pixels.  Move the slider to the left to make the image darker, or to the right to make it lighter.

You can create monotone images by clicking on the Colorize check box.  Move the Hue slider to change the colour tone, and the Saturation slider to change the colour strength.

Note:  If you select one area of the image, then the changes you make with this tool will only be done in the selected area.  This makes these tools much more flexible.  We will be looking at selections tomorrow.
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This week I am putting together a few posts on Photoshop Elements.  Some of these techniques can also be followed in the full version, but I am using Elements because it is in the price range of most.  I do recommend Elements as a programme, although if you are wanting to work at a professional level as an artist, designer or photographer, then I recommend stumping up for the full version which has some useful additional tools.

The technique I want to look at today is enhancing the contrast and colour in photos.   So if you have Elements and want to follow along, here we go!

First find a photo to practice with and open it in the usual way using the File menu.  There are a host of auto tools under the Enhance menu.  Experiment with these to see how they affect your image.  There's nothing wrong with using these tools, but they don't give you a great deal of flexibility.

I want to focus in this post on the tool called 'Levels'.  This tool is found in most image editing programmes so it is worth covering.  In the Enhance menu choose Lighting and then Levels.
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You will get this window:

If you want to find out more about levels there is a link to the help menu where you see the light bulb symbol.
Note that under the graph you will see a white triangle on the right, a grey triangle in the middle, and a black triangle to the left.  Slide each of these triangles along the bottom of the graph to get the desired contrast.  If you click on the white triangle and slide it to the left your image will become brighter.  That is, more of the pixels contained in your image will be moved into the white area.  Moving the black triangle to the right will make the dark pixels darker.  Moving the grey triangle to the left will make the grey pixels darker, but move it to the left and you will make the grey pixels lighter.  Experiment to see what effect you get.  Moving both the white slider and the black slider nearer the middle increases the contrast in the image.

You can also use this tool to fix problems with colour.  Above the graph you will see a drop down arrow that initially says RGB (short for Red, Green, Blue).  When you click on it you will see these colours listed.    You can alter colours in the following ways:

Choose the red channel:  Moving the dark triangle in will make the image less red (and more cyan), moving the white triangle will make it more red.

Choosing the green channel:  Moving the dark triangle in will make the image less green (and more magenta), moving the white triangle will make it more green.

Choosing the blue channel:  Moving the dark triangle in will make the image less blue (and more yellow), moving the white triangle will make it more blue.

Practising with these tools will help you become more familiar with them.  Have fun!
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