ACDSee

Digital images can easily be enhanced, sorted and stored with the use of photo editing software. With the popularity of digital cameras, the scanning of negatives and prints and the desire to go paperless, photo editing software gives users a variety of enhancement options with their digital images. Improvements in color, removing blemishes and even changing a color photo to black and white is possible with photo editing software.

Benefits

Photo editing software allows users to make several types of corrections to photos stored on their computers. Photos can be cropped and brightened, colors can be saturated and the overall picture can be lightened or darkened.

Advanced photo editing software allows users to alter photos. Imperfections like a stray hair, pimple or smudged lipstick can easily be corrected. Tools that duplicate pixels allow the software user to re-create, clone and rearrange portions of the photo.

Misconceptions

Photo editing software cannot refocus a picture. If the picture taker did not use the auto-focus feature correctly or manually focus the lens of the camera, the image will always be out of focus.

However, if the photo is just a little bit fuzzy, it can be sharpened with photo editing software. The Unsharp mask feature in Adobe Photoshop can create an illusion of sharpness on photos that are just a little bit soft.

Features

A few of the main features of photo editing software include the capability to select specific portions of a photo, rather than applying a technique to the entire photo.

Cropping tools are another popular feature of photo editing software. These tools are used to zoom in a certain portion of the photo and trim off unwanted background. The result is a closer image.

Effects

An overall improvement in photo quality can be achieved with photo editing software. Although it takes extra time to manipulate photos on a computer, the results can be worthwhile.

Type

Photo editing software can be downloaded off the Internet for free. Full versions with advanced editing features can be purchased at software and photography stores.

Some photo editing software is included on new computers for free. Perform the search function on the computer. Search for programs that include the words "edit," "photo," "photography," "picture" and "image." Browse the literature that came with the computer to see what software was included.

Popular photo editing software programs include Microsoft Picture It, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw and Picassa.

Photo editing is usually necessary to prepare digital photographs for printing or for publication on the web. It can also be used to correct problems with scanned photographs. Nevertheless, many people simply print or upload their pictures without any alterations, causing the picture quality to suffer. In order to properly edit your pictures, you must have a powerful software application installed on your computer.

Features

High quality photo editing software has toolbars and menu options you can use to make a wide range of edits. The program should be able to adjust the brightness, contrast, hue, saturation and lightness of the photo. Also, it should have the ability to crop the image and rotate it any number of degrees. Tools such as clone, text, line, smudge, sharpen, soften and select are also very helpful when editing photographs.

Function

Photo editing is very useful for photos that are underexposed. Even photos that appear bright enough may need brightness and contrast enhancement. Often, underexposed photos taken indoors are very yellow. Photo editing software can correct this problem by removing the yellow and restoring the color balance to normal. Then the color saturation can be increased, making the colors look brighter. You can also use photo editing software to make photos smaller, resave them as JPEG or GIF images, and make other alterations to make them suitable for publication on the web.

Considerations

Windows Paint does not have the features needed to edit photos. If you don't want to pay for software, consider getting GIMP, a free, powerful open-source image editor. GIMP is a full-featured program, but it has some quirks. For example, it opens all toolbars, images and menus in separate windows rather than in one window. If the separate windows are too distracting, another option is Paint Shop Pro, an inexpensive full-featured image editor. Picasa, which is distributed by Google, is another free graphics software program with many useful features. Photoshop is too expensive for most home users, since the most advanced features aren't used in typical photo editing.

Benefits

Photo editing can salvage photographs that otherwise would have to be discarded. Either digital photos or scanned photos with problems can be repaired. Users can create composite photographs or remove undesirable objects or people from their photos. Some inexpensive and free image processing software programs can automatically correct brightness, contrast and color balance in photos.

Effects

With powerful image editing software, you will be able to dramatically increase the quality of your photographs. You can make them look sharper, clearer, brighter and more professional. Snapshots can be prepared for printing and framing. Pictures for a website or blog can be improved and cropped to the proper size. Editing photographs of items for sale can help them to sell faster and at higher prices. If the image itself is being sold, editing is an absolutely indispensable step.

TWAIN is a technology standard that allows computers to effectively interface with imaging equipment such as scanners and cameras. The driver is released by the TWAIN Working Group, which is a consortium of software, hardware and photography companies. Seven versions of the driver have been released since first being introduced in 1992.

Before TWAIN

When imaging devices were first introduced, photo editing software did not have the tools to receive data. Drivers had to be independently launched outside of the software for the computer to successfully download data. With so many new products being deployed, software companies could not keep up. Imaging device makers and software providers understood that for users to more rapidly adopt scanning and imaging technology, a standard needed to be established.

The Name "TWAIN"

The word TWAIN is from Rudyard Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West." The line, "...and never the twain shall meet..." reflects the difficulty of connecting scanners and personal computers before the standard existed. Although TWAIN does not have an acronym attached to it, it has developed an unofficial acronym: "Technology Without An Interesting Name."

TWAIN Formation

The TWAIN Working Group was founded to develop a common standard for connecting imaging devices to computers. The group strives to ensure image-handling software and hardware compatibility, include platform support and ensure easy implementation for future generations. The Working Group also encourages widespread adoption of the TWAIN specification.

TWAIN Members

The TWAIN Working Group includes software companies Adobe Systems and photo and camera companies such as Eastman Kodak. The Working Group also includes hardware companies Ricoh, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, Logitech, Canon, Epson and Fujistu. Organizations that adopt the TWAIN Working Group install the TWAIN driver into their product's firmware in order to ensure interoperability.

The TWAIN Driver

The TWAIN driver supports high-speed scanning and digital cameras. What makes the driver interoperable is a source manager. The source manager serves as an intermediary between programs and hardware. As a result, a program does not need to talk to the hardware directly. The program speaks to the source manager, which communicates with the device. The TWAIN driver is notable for being able to operate on multiple operating systems such as Windows and Apple. TWAIN also supports numerous Linux platforms.

Temporary (TMP) files are a fixture of the modern computing landscape and are used by a variety of programs. By understanding what these files are and how they are used by your favorite programs, you can learn how to deal with them and how they help your computer run faster.

Programs that Use TMP Files

Although you may not see them directly, temporary files are used by many of the programs you use every day. When you use your Internet browser, whether it is Firefox, Internet Explorer or Chrome, sites that you visit frequently are saved as temporary files known collectively as a "cache." Word processors like Microsoft Word and Open Office also use temporary files to save documents for recovery in case of a crash. Even photo software creates temporary files for faster loading of frequently edited photos.

Function

There are two basic functions for temporary files within program parameters. The first is to make the program run faster. By keeping cached versions of frequently visited websites in temporary folders, the Internet can load basic templates and repeated elements much faster than if it were loading the page for the first time. Temporary files also help safeguard important files from being lost due to an unexpected program termination after a system freeze or unanticipated shutdown.

TMP Files on Your Desktop

In addition to temporary files being used with programs, TMP files are also created by your operating system. If you are downloading a large file to your desktop, a temporary file is created to house the data downloaded thus far. This ensures that if the download is interrupted, it can be resumed from where it left off, using the data contained in the temporary file.

Opening TMP Files

If you find a temporary file and click on it, you will not be able to open it. However, if there is something in the temporary file you need to access, there are a number of ways to open it. The best (and generally most successful) way to open a temporary file is to open the program it was created with and then browse for and open the file. If this causes an error and the file is a word-processing file, you can try opening it in Notepad.

When to Clear

Although temporary files generally make programs run faster, if you have too many of them saved on your computer, you may notice a slowdown. To delete temporary Internet files, open your browser, go to the Tools menu and select "Options." If you are using Internet Explorer, Click on "Delete" under "Browsing History." For Firefox, Select "Clear Private Information" under the "Security" tab. To delete all your other program-related temporary files, find the Disk Cleanup utility on your computer (in the Accessories folder under "System Tools"), check the box that says "Temporary Files" and then click "Delete."

Working with photo software isn't always about restoring photographs, making color corrections and fixing flaws. There are also a world of effects available in many photo-editing programs that allow you to add new dimensions to your images. For instance, you can create an effect that makes it look as if it was raining when a photo was taken by adding water drops to the surface of your photo. Adding this water drop effect with Photo Effects is a rather simple process. The difficult part is getting precisely the look that you want.

Back Up Your Original Photograph

Before getting started with putting water drops on your photographs, it is important to save an original copy of the file. You don't want to add the effect, change your mind later and discover that you have destroyed the only copy of your photo. The simplest way to create a copy is to open the photo in your editing software, go to the "File" menu, select "Save as" and enter a name for your new file that differentiates it from the original. For instance, you could call it "Street with Water Drops."

Create the Drops

Once your original file is protected, you can create the water drop effect. To begin, create a new layer on which to put your water drops, so that changes can be made to the drops without altering the photograph layer. A new layer is generally added from the "Layer" menu. When you create the new layer, it will automatically be selected. Choose silver as the color on your front color swatch and use a paint brush to make different sized dots all over the layer in a random fashion.

Make the Dots Look Natural

In order to make your circular dots look more like natural water drops, alter the shape of the dots and blur the edges. To change the shapes, go to "Filter" and choose the "Distort/Wave" option. Under the "Scale" section, change the horizontal and vertical values to make the dots spread out naturally as water would splatter. Make only slight changes to these values. Anything too extreme will also look unnatural. If you keep the numbers at 10 and under, the dots should be fine. Make the dots look like water by using a filter. Filters like "Plastic Wrap" give the object a wet appearance. Once the filter is applied to the layer, your dots will look like water. On the "Layers" palette, use the "Opacity" slider to lower the opacity to 50 percent. You will be able to see through the dots like water drops.

Adobe Photoshop and other photo manipulation software give the photographer a full darkroom without the dark and without the smelly chemicals. Photoshop follows most of the old techniques such as dodging and burning, but also adds many more techniques to provide better photo editing.

Basics

Toning is everything in photo editing, whether you are working with grayscale or color. There are many ways to tone photos, but the quickest---and one that works about 80 percent of the time---is using the auto toning tools. In older versions of Photoshop, go to "Image>Adjustments," and you will find "Auto Levels," "Auto Color" and "Auto Contrast." In newer versions, go to "Image," and you will find the same three, although "Auto Levels" now is "Auto Tone." "Auto Levels/Tone" will make a quick assessment of the image and tone it according to the colors and white, black and mid-range tones in it.

Shadows and Highlights

Starting with Photoshop CS, the program added a useful tool for fixing poorly exposed photos, especially those with a light background and dark or shadowed foreground. Go to "Image>Adjustments>Shadows/Highlights." This tool will bring up the light level in the shadow areas while leaving the lighter background areas untouched. You can use the basic pop-up window or click "Show More Options" for more control. One slight problem can arise when using this tool. It can shift the color to the red a bit. You can fix it by going to "Image>Adjustments>Curves," selecting the red channel and tweaking the graph away from the red slightly. Or you can "Color Adjustments" in the "Shadows/Highlights" pop-up.

Go Grayscale

If you have a photo that isn't that good or one that has a lot of color noise in it, a good way to make the photo better is to change it to grayscale. Grayscale photos are more forgiving than color. You can change a color image to grayscale several ways. The easiest is to go to "Image>Mode>Grayscale," but this limits your ability to control tone. A better way---in older versions of Photoshop---is to go to "Image>Adjustments>Desaturate." This will turn the image to grayscale, but leave the color information intact so you can adjust it. In newer Photoshop versions, go to "Image>Adjustments>Black & White."

Graphics and photo editing tools can be expensive, but there are perfectly viable free options available that offer features comparable to high-end software and allow you to produce similar results. Some of these programs fall shy of what they promise, and a few of them cause nothing but headaches, so it's important that you take time to choose the photo editing tools that fit your needs. Here are some of the best, most useful free photo editing tools available:

Photofiltre Graphics Suite

The Photofiltre Graphics Suite offers a combination of photo editing tools and artistic graphic rendering tools. The software is an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. There are many free plug-ins for creating artistic effects and for doing extensive touch up work. There also is a version you can purchase that offers more tools, but the free version is sufficient enough to handle the needs of most users.

Picasa

Picasa is a photo editing tool from Google. Installing the program allows you to instantly find and organize all of the photos on your computer. Once you've done this, you can begin using Picasa to create Web albums that can be uploaded and shared. You can create photo CDs with the touch of a button. Picasa also has features that will create collages, posters and screensavers. In addition to these tools, Picasa features an array of photo editing tools to help you balance color, contrast and add special effects. Picasa is professional quality program.

GIMP Open Source Photo Editing

GIMP is open source software that comes with an extensive set of artistic rendering tools in addition to standard photo editing tools. Since it is open source, GIMP is constantly being updated to include new tools. GIMP even includes a logo-making component that allows you to create text effects.

XnView

Xnview is a combination photo viewer and photo editing program. Xnview makes it easy to keep track of all of your photographs. The "Tools" menu includes an extensive selection of features that allow you to watermark your photos, adjust contrasts and colors, and apply artistic effects. Xnview is easy to install, easy to use and gets updated regularly.

Mystical fantasy style images are very popular in art, film and on the Web. A great deal of the appeal of these images is created by the application of special lighting effects that give an other-worldliness to an otherwise ordinary photo or computer rendering. One good way to create such effects is Adobe Photoshop with the Auto FX Mystical Lighting plug-in.

Create a Variety of Effects

When you launch Photoshop and bring up the Mystical Lighting plug-in, you get access to an array of effects that you can immediately apply to your image, from mists and rainbows to flares and sparkling stars. Each can then be used as is, in which case you click back to Photoshop, or you can use the tools to modify the effect.

Bezier Curves

Once you have added these effects to the scene, you can (with many of them) use the associated Bezier curves to adjust the way the effect appears on the image. For example, if you have applied the pixie dust effect, you can move the curves to reposition the effect, or you can add more points to the curve to create a greater concentration of the effect in a particular area.

Smart Layers

Mystical Lighting has a feature called Smart Layers that users can employ to combine several different effects at the same time. This allows users to combine several effects to produce amazing results. In fact, the key to using the plug-in to its fullest lies in the way you combine the effects you choose.

Light and Shading Brushes

There are two types of brushes for controlling the brightness of sections of the image effect. Using the Light and Shading brushes you can adjust the transparency, color and blending of the effects.

Interaction With Photoshop

Mystical Lighting is designed to work well with all the other major features in Photoshop, such as layers, actions and filters, as well as transparency. This means that you can use the plug-in without worrying that it will adversely affect the document. However, if you want to use Mystical Lighting as a stand-alone application, you can do so.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 4 is a full-featured photo editing and manipulation program for the average consumer who wants some of the same tools the professionals use. Since Photoshop is an expensive software package, Adobe took out some of things most people do not need, rearranged tools for easier use in Elements and added some things--such as template layouts and red eye fix--Photoshop does not have.

Organizer

When you open Elements 4, you will see the six buttons on the welcome screen. These will help you start editing your photos. Click View > Organize Photos. This will open the Organizer where you can arrange photos, group them and label them. You also can open photos here, one at a time or in groups. To open one, double click it. To open contiguous photos as a group, hold the "Shift" key and click once on each photo. Double-click any one of the select images and all will open. Or, you can open non-contiguous photos. Hold the "Command" key on the Mac or "Control" key in Windows. Click photos not next to each other and double click any of the selected to open them.

Quick Fix

Take the open photo in Elements and Save a copy. Click File > Save As. Use the Quick Fix mode to adjust basic problems in most photos. At the upper right of the screen are two buttons labeled Quick Fix and Standard Edit. Click "Quick Fix." Four palettes will appear on the right of the screen--General Fixes, Lighting, Color and Sharpen. Start with General Fixes. To let Elements make automatic adjustments, use Smart Fix. Click "Auto." Adjust how much of a change you want with the slider control. If a person in your image has bright red eyes caused by a flash, click "Red Eye Fix." Using the Auto buttons in each palette will give you balanced photos in most cases.

Magic Extractor

A tool available in Elements 4 that is not exactly represented in Photoshop is the Magic Extractor. This tool is particularly useful if you want to remove certain portions of a photo and leave the rest intact. For example, if you have a photo of yourself and an ex-girlfriend, you can remove her easily. Open a copy of the image and create a new Layer. Click Layer > New > Layer From Background. Name it and click "OK". Open the Magic Extractor. Click Image > Magic Extractor. This will give you a pop-up window. At the top left of the side toolbar, click Foreground Tool > Paint. This does not have to be completely filled, just enough to tell Elements the shape of the object. Then select the "Background Tool." Click the second button on the side toolbar and "paint" the area you want removed. To see what the image will look like, use Preview (click "Preview" in the upper right). When you have the image you want, click "OK." Before you print, Flatten the image. Click Layer > Flatten.

GIMP is a freeware program for editing photographs and other images. It has many of the same capabilities of its pricey cousin Photoshop. If you want to edit photographs, GIMP's wide selection of tools, functions and filters make it possible for you to do virtually anything you need to, from removing unwanted objects and retouching photos to creating borders for your images.

Using the Patch Tool

Many times you will take what you would have considered the perfect photograph except for some annoying object that happens to be behind or next to the subject of the shot. You might think that you would have to retake the shot, but if you have a fairly uniform background (like water and sky or distant trees), GIMP can help you save that photograph. First, connect your camera to your computer and load the image onto your hard drive (or scan it in if it is printed).

Open GIMP. Select "File" and click "Open." Browse to the image you saved and open it. Now go to the toolbar on the left and select the "Patch" tool. Now draw a selection around the object you want to remove and drag it to a nearby section that would look right place over the object. GIMP will automatically replace the object with the a copy of the section you referenced.

Retouching with Clone Tool

Unfortunately, unless in the previous example you have an absolutely uniform background, there will probably be a line where the new section overlaps the old. But this is easily solved. Select the "Clone" tool, hold down the "Alt" key and click on an area near (but not in) a section of the line you want to remove. Now draw over the line and it will neatly blend in.

Adding a Frame

If you would like to create an artsy faded border for your image, click on the "Rectangular Selection" tool. In the options on the right, increase the feather to about 20 (the number you use will depend on the size and resolution of you image). Now go to the canvas and make a selection of the part of your image that you don't want to be part of your border. Then go to "Selection" in the menu and "Invert" the selection. Now just hit "Delete" on your keyboard, and you have a nice faded border.

Photo filters have been around for a long time. You put one on the front of your lens to get an effect such as deep contrast (red filter for black and white film) or to take away some of the haze or ultraviolet light. Then Tiffen came along and marketed a whole range of special effects filters for motion picture and still cameras. The company has taken its filters and turned them into digital filters.

Function

The biggest problem with using a Tiffen glass filter is that the image is permanently altered to have a golden sky or a rainbow or ice crystals. Getting rid of such effects in Adobe Photoshop can be nearly impossible. The obvious solution for this once photography went digital was to take the same filters and allow you to superimpose them over copies of your images, thus leaving the original intact.

Interface

Tiffen Dfx software can be plugged into software such as Photoshop, but there also is a stand-alone package available. Once loaded into Photoshop, it appears as a Filter on the Filter menu (click "Filter" then "Tiffen" then "Dfx v2"). Just like the Photoshop Filter Gallery, Dfx takes you to a separate control window where your photo will appear.

Effects Groups

At the bottom of the Dfx window is a series of buttons such as Film Lab, Gels, Image, Photographic and Special Effects, among others. Clicking any one of these will make a thumbnail of your image appear at the bottom with the different effects overlaid. Clicking on a thumbnail will do two things: Change the appearance of the big version of your photo in the center and show variations of the effect at the right.

Parameters

The filter variations at the right can be selected each in turn to show that effect. Or if one already is selected, choose Parameters (click the "Parameters" button at the bottom right) to make adjustments to that effect. For example, if you choose Colored Infrared at the bottom and Color Infrared 4 at right, then click Parameters, you can alter then Magenta, Blue, Hue and Contrast with a series of slider controls.

Rendering

When you have an effect you like, you can tell Dfx to make the change to the photo with the "Done" button (click the icon that looks like a gear in the upper left corner). This will take you back to the main Photoshop interface and a small window will appear that says "Rendering" and still giving you the option to cancel.

Other Effects

There are many different effects you can choose from in Dfx. You can turn the image into a black and white infrared image, which many photographers have missed since the demise of film. You can color tint an entire scene or insert the image of light through a window or turn your photo into an image as if viewed through night vision goggles. And each effect has tweaking controls under Parameters.

Red eyes don't have to ruin a photograph. With image editing software, there are many options for reducing red eye, often to the point where it's not noticeable in the final photo. The method you choose depends on what works best for your particular picture. Sometimes the automatic red eye removal tools included with the software will work great, but other times you'll need to experiment and remove the red eyes manually.

Automatic Red Eye Remover

Automatic red eye remover tools are packaged with most photo editing software. They are designed to save time and make the job easier. They don't always work as expected, but are a great first option to try, especially when you are in a hurry or are processing a large number of photos.

Clone Tool

If you have only one red eye, or another person in the picture without red eye, you can sometimes use the clone tool packaged with your photo editing software to remove the red eye. In cases where you only need to remove red from the pupil and not from the iris, this is a very effective method. Cloning allows you to retain the natural reflective properties of the eye while covering over the red.

Coloring

Coloring over the pupil, especially in severe cases of red eye, can be effective but must be done carefully to avoid looking sloppy. It is best to sample the color that you want and reduce the opacity as much as possible while still covering the red. Reducing the opacity of the color will allow some of the reflections in the eye to come through, keeping it looking natural.

Selective Darkening

Selectively darkening the pupil, if the red eye is minimal, is also a very effective strategy. Burn tools work well for this, but if your software doesn't offer a burn tool there is another option. Select only the area of the eye you wish to darken and use the brightness tool to darken the pupil.

Before being purchased by Corel in 2006, InterVideo and its subsidiary, Ulead, were part of an independent software company that produced graphics editing software. A number of files are associated with Ulead programs, including .ufo files.

Identification

A file with the .ufo file extension is most commonly known as a Ulead file object.

Function

A file with the .ufo file extension is a photo editing project created with a Ulead program. The extension serves as a marker for your computer, signaling that the file requires Ulead software to be accessed.

Features

A .ufo file is saved in many layers that can be individually edited without changing the entire image. Ufo files are raster images, meaning that they are composed of small dots called pixels rather than full lines or shapes.

Programs

Ufo are typically created by Ulead PhotoImpact, but the file can also be viewed with Ulead Video Studio and Ulead Moviefactory. Ulead Photo Explorer will also upon .ufo files, but if you have used more than one layer in the file, it may not display properly.

Systems

Ulead software and .ufo files can only be accessed on Windows-based computers.

Considerations

A less commonly used type of .ufo files contains an exact copy of a Super Nintendo game that can be played with a Super Nintendo emulator program. Also, .ufo files are used by an uncommon program known as Ellisys Visual USB, which uses the .ufo files to run diagnostic and troubleshooting tests on USB ports.