Information & Communications Technology ( ICT)

PHOTO EDITING
 Lesson 1

Editing Concepts
Know
Image editing is the processes of altering
images, whether they are digital
Basics of Image Editing photographs, traditional analog photographs,
or illustrations.

Images – they are incredibly Traditional analog image editing is known as

versatile, come in a variety of photo retouching, using tools such as an
airbrush to modify photographs, or editing
formats, and deliver context,
illustrations with any traditional art medium.
information and emotions that words
alone struggle to convey. Having a Graphic software programs, which can be
clean and balanced image is of great broadly grouped into vector graphics editors,
value. raster graphics editors and 3D modelers, are
the primary tools with which a user may
manipulate, enhance and transform images.
Newspapers have always used
dramatic images to sell their stories. Many image editing programs are also used
An image is the hook that draws the to render or create computer art from
reader’s eye to read the words. It scratch.
breaks up the text, brightens the page and sets the mood for the article. Websites use
photos in the same way, to catch the readers before they navigate away from a page,
to draw them on to reading the content.
You do not have to be a professional photographer to produce good enough
images. It does help to shoot a good clear image in the first place, but simple snapshots
can be improved a lot in an image editing program.

Whether you use a free image editing program like GIMP or Picasa, or purchase
software such as Adobe Photoshop, learning just a few basic image editing techniques
can turn a photo from dull waste of space to effective hook for your website.

As a beginner in photo editing, you are expected to learn the basics of image
editing which are presented below.

1. Cropping

Cropping an image effectively can already make a huge difference to its impact.
When you cut out distracting background, or a clutter of irrelevant objects around, the
subject of your photo stands out better. You can correct the placing of the subject if it is

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awkwardly placed by trimming one side, focus more attention on a person’s face by
cropping a wide shot into a portrait format and much more.

When cropping, keep in mind a basic rule of composition: the rule of thirds. This
golden rule of photography divides the image into thirds, horizontally and vertically and
then aligns the subject with one of the intersecting lines. The horizon in a landscape
shot, usually works best placed on one of these lines too. Read more about composition
and then you can apply it with your cropping tool.

2. Resizing and Compression

When you have cropped and edited your image, so you have it looking just the
way you like, the next stage is to resize and compress it to the optimum size for the use
you intend it for. You may want to save a copy of your edited image before you resize it,
so that you can use it at a different size later.

When editing and preparing images for display it is important to consider the
medium over which your images will be transmitted. Are your images for print? Will it be
used on a web page? Or maybe they are for a PowerPoint presentation. Each of these
media requires that you adjust the size and resolution of your image appropriately.

You know size refers to the actually height and width that your image will be
displayed as, but resolution is just as important. Resolution refers to the number of dots
per inch (dpi) that appear in your images final form. For print these really may just be
dots. On screen, however, these dots are referred to as pixels. An image with high
resolution (one produced for print, for example) will look very smooth and will show
virtually no pixilation. An image with low resolution (one produced for the screen—
particularly the web) may look far more pixelated.

For print you want high resolution because your printers can handle it and your
pictures will look best. For the screen you must rely on layout resolutions simply
because monitors can only handle so much.

2.1. Resizing image from digital camera

As the quality of digital cameras goes up, so does the volume of pixels they can
capture. These days, shooting in your camera’s highest quality mode can yield an
image bigger than your printer can actually print. While most image editing programs
can resize your photo in their respective print dialog boxes, knowing how to do it
yourself gives you more control.

3. Correcting

One of the first decisions you must make after downloading the files from your
camera is whether they all need generalized correction. This might be because the light

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that was used to make the photographs was not consistent with the white balance
setting on the camera. For example, the camera might have been set for bright sun, but
perhaps there was a small amount of haze, or photographing on the north side of a
building may have created a color bias in the image. If all the images in a single group
were photographed under these conditions, you would need to correct all of them.
Further, the entire image would need to be corrected to change the color rendition
because of the inconsistency between the light and the white balance.

4. Sharpening or Softening

Sharpening or softening is the last of the global corrections that are often applied
to digital images. This may be needed because of the way digital sensors are made and
how this affects the look of the captured image. In many digital sensors there is a
diffusion material that slightly blurs the captured image to eliminate unwanted effects
such as moiré pattern. Both pixel sharpening and edge sharpening correct these
effects. Pixel sharpening is applied to the pixels with processes such as unsharp
masking. Edge sharpening is applied only to the pixels that the software can identify as
being on an edge.

To your eyes, particularly as you look at a rasterized image on a computer

screen, the image sharpness will always seem like it can be improved. However, this
control should be used very sparingly to avoid over sharpening the image. Over
sharpening increases the contrast and often distorts color relationships and is the
opposite of softening. Sharpening may be applied in all steps of the imaging process:
capture, processing and printing. It should therefore not be applied in the camera
because it can be corrected in processing and printing.

Raster Image

Raster images are stored in a computer in the form of a grid of picture elements,
or pixels. These pixels contain the images color and brightness information. Image
editors can change the pixels to improve the image in many ways. The pixels can be
changed as a group, or individually, by the refined algorithms within the image editors.

The domain of this article primarily refers to bitmap graphics editors, which are
often used to alter photographs and other raster graphics.

Vector graphics software, such as Adobe Illustrator, Corel DRAW, Xara Designer
Pro or Inkscape, are used to create and modify vector images, which are stored
as descriptions of lines, Bézier splines and text instead of pixels.

It is easier to rasterize a vector image than to vectorize a raster image; how to go

about vectorizing a raster image is the focus of much research in the field of
computer vision.

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 Vector images can be modified more easily,
because they contain descriptions of the
shapes for easy rearrangement. They are
also scalable, being rasterizable at any
resolution.

Automatic Image Enhancement

Camera or computer image editing

programs often offer basic automatic image
improvement features that correct color hue
and brightness imbalances as well as other
image editing features, such as red eye removal, sharpness adjustments, zoom
features and automatic cropping.

These are called automatic because generally they happen without user
interaction or are offered with one click of a button or mouse button or by
selecting an option from a menu.

Some automatic editing features offer a combination of editing actions with little or
no user interaction.

Digital Data Compression

Many image file formats use data compression to reduce file size and save
storage space.

Digital compression of images may take place in the camera, or can be done in
the computer with the image editor.

When images are stored in Joint Photograhic Experts Group (JPEG) format,
compression has already taken place.

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 Both cameras and computer programs allow the user to set the level of
compression.

Some compression processes such as those used in Portable Network Graphics

(PNG) file format, are lossless, which means no information is lost when the file is
saved. By contrast, the JPEG file format uses a lossy compression algorithm by which
the greater the compression, the more information is lost, ultimately reducing image
quality or detail that cannot be restored. JPEG uses knowledge of the way the human
brain and eyes perceive color to make this loss of detail less noticeable.

Key Terms and Definitions

Photoshop Document (.psd). A .psd file is the file format in which Photoshop saves
documents by default. It is a multi-layer document that retains its full editing options
when saved. In many cases, you will export web graphics from a .psd document file
format.

Layers. Photoshop documents are composed of layers, which can basically be

described as single transparent sheets which hold particular pieces of an image. These
layers can contain images, text and vector graphics. They can be rearranged and
grouped according to user needs. Layers are controlled with the use of the Layers
pane.

Selections. Selections refer to regions in an image that will be affected by the various
tools. A selection in Photoshop is similar to a selection that you highlight in a word
processing application. Once you have selected an area, you can apply a tool to it, such
as paintbrush, or perform an operation such as copy or crop. Selections can be any
shape and size; the shape depends on which selection tool you are working with. Your
selection will apply only to the current layer. If that layer is empty in the region selected,
an error message will appear. When this happens, go to the Layers pane and select the
correct layer.

Resolution. Resolution refers to the number of pixels in a full size image. An image
with high resolution contains more information than an image with low resolution and
therefore, one can always convert a high resolution (hi-res) image to a low resolutions
(lo-res) image. However, because information is lost in the conversion, the reverse is
not true. If you were to increase the resolution of a lo-res image, the result would be
fuzzy.

Image Size. Resolution should not be confused with image size, which is also
expressed in pixels. Image size deals with the actual number of pixels tall and wide an
image is. For an idea of how the two differ, go to Image Size in the Image menu, and
plug in different numbers for image size and resolution.

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Color mode. Color mode refers to the types of colors you will be using in your image.
CMYK and RGB are the most important of these modes to be familiar with.

• CMYK is the setting for images that will be printed to paper. The letters refer to
the four channels of color used to create every color available: cyan, magenta,
yellow and black.
• RGB refers to the three channel color mode suitable for images to be viewed on
the web: red, green and blue.

Process (ACTIVITY)
Let us see if you understood what you have read.

Direction: Complete the web below by enumerating the basics of photo editing. Give
brief description of each.

Activity. Complete the Web

Image Editing

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 Reflect and Understand
You have learned that image editing is an enjoyable activity but it entails a lot of
patience and creativity. As a photo editor, you must have an eye for art. Bear in mind
that the pictures you will come up with support the idea that you wish to convey.

A photo is worth a thousand words, they say. It depends on the photo and on the
words of course. However, just by learning the basic image editing techniques, you can
make sure that your photos put across the message you want and get your views to
read your words, too.

Below are other features of photo editing that you need to learn. Read and
understand them carefully.
Screen Resolution

Screen resolution is close to 72 pixels per inch. If you are working with graphics
to be viewed only on screen, 72 should be fine. Depending on the printer you are using,
you may increase this above 72 for graphics. The preferred resolution for images is 300
while the standard resolution for printing is 150. A typical monitor is set to display
somewhere around 800x600 pixels. This means that a 1”x1”, 600dpi (dots per inch)
image would fill up most of the screen. It is becoming more and more common that
monitors are set to display at higher resolution—somewhere around 1024x768 pixels.

For this reason you must design screen graphics at a lower resolution: 72dpi is
the standard for the world wide web (www). Due to screen resolution limitations, you
should measure the dimensions of images using pixels. To be safe, never publish an
image for the web that is more than 800 pixels wide or 600 pixels high. Unless the
screen image you are using came from the web, it is likely that you will have to edit the
image so that it is an appropriate resolution and size for display. To do so, rely on
Photoshop’s tools for cropping and resizing images.

As a basic rule for a medium web-site image, reduce the longest side of your
image to around 450pixels. Make sure that it is set at the 72dpi standard resolution for
web use. Adjust the quality further if necessary, so that your final image ends up at
about 30-50kb in size. Small thumbnail images can be even smaller at 200 pixels wide
and10-15kb in size.

Layering

Often times, when you find yourself frustrated with Photoshop, it is because you
are trying to perform operations on a layer that is not currently selected. Simply click on
the name of a layer in order to designate it as the current layer. Whenever you add text
to an image in Photoshop, the text appears on a new layer. You can "merge down"

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layers to consolidate them, and "flatten image" to force the entire contents of the image
onto one layer.

Transfer (ACTIVITY)

Learners like you are very creative. It is now time for you to transfer your learning
on photo editing into another way. This is one way to tap your multiple intelligences.

Directions: Below are two activities that you will accomplish in groups. Share your
outputs in class.

1. Conduct research on the basics of image editing that are not included in the module.
You can read books, magazines, or surf the net. Summarize it and share it to class.

2. Based on your research make a four-line rhyme/jingle about the meaning and basics
of photo editing and perform it in class.

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