Whjat's your favourite photo editing tool?

I do like the clone tool





getting rid of unwanted things in the pic. This example really needs a bit more work, like the front of the right hand arm of the bench.

 

clone tool....as above,removes junk and the damn sensor dust.
burn tool....brings out depth and colour,deepens shadow areas to selected areas of the image.
I actually use loads of the tool alot,but i think these two are my favourites.

mike-soundcitye work,better than mine.

Joe

 

Most of the photo editing programmes like Paintshop pro, Photoshop, the Gimp etc have lots of "tools" that enable you to correct some errors and perform enhancements. e.g cropping completelycutting out bits you don't want, or changing the brightness and/or contrast, changing the colour, curing "red eye" caused by the reflection of flash from the retina, rotating a picture so the horizon is straight and verticals upright. The clone tool referred to in my post above, copies (clones) parts of a picture to "rub out" unwanted things, could be removing a zit from a face, or if you have scanned a copy of an old creased photo you can erase the creases and sometimes fill in torn corners etc.

 

Thanks Joe, I think the use of the clone tool varies a lot between programmes, come to that most programmes seem to have different strong points. I use Picture Publisher most of the time (no longer on the market except as a download from some obscure Australian site since Corel bought out Micrografx)

If however I need to do some serious straightening of horizons or getting uprights vertical then the easiest I have found is Picasa from Google, it puts a grid over the pic and you move a slider with the mouse until horizon or verticals are aligned with the grid.

 

The tools I'd miss most if I didn't have them for digital processing are the ones I used when I did my own monochrome D & P in my 'wet' processing days. (Could never afford to get into colour processing).

1 - The cropping/select/copy tools.
2- Dodge/burn.
3- Exposure (brighten/darken)

Got to agree about the clone tool!!!!

It's all so much easier and cheaper now and there is far greater scope for creativity even when using basic digital cameras and 'shareware' software.

 

I love looking at these photography threads they're fasinating to ignoramuses like myself. 02

 

ive never actualy tried imadge editing, im a bit of a ludite in some respects.

 

I use The Gimp v2 and MS Digital Image suite v10. DI is very useful for removing things, whilst The Gimp has an extremely useful tool for perspective correction (converging verticals can be straightened by stretching the top of the picture, or if you are looking down from a high point you can stretch the bottom of the picture).