october 31, 1999
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easy affordable photo fixing editing
Kim Komando
You hardly ever get a second chance to shoot that perfect picture. However, thanks to computers and
digital photography, you can tweak your shots to near perfection-and you don't need a pricey $600 program like Adobe Photoshop, either. A number of software packages that combine digital photo retouching with cool projects are great fun, easy to use and all cost between $50 and $80.
These programs essentially turn your digital photos (scanned or from your digital camera) into pictures that you can after to your heart's content. You can paint or draw right on a photo, adjust brightness and contrast, sharpen edges, erase something or someone from a scene, even splice someone's head onto a different body.
Tops on my list of easy editors is Adobe's PhotoDeluxe ( http://www.adebexirm.com ), which comes in two flavors: Home Edition and Business Edition. The photo-retouching tools in each are the same, including the requisite red-eye-removal tool that you'll find in all these packages. What differs is the types of projects you can create with your photos once you've fine-tuned them. The Home Edition (available for Mac and Windows, $49) gives you the tools to create calendars and greeting cards; the Business Edition (for Windows only, $79) helps you with things like custom business cards and fliers.
What I like most about PhotoDeluxe, though, is the user interface. There's a lot of handholding to get you started. But after you become proficient at
using the program, you can turn off some of the help functions. In a way, the program grows with you.
If you're strictly a Windows user and want a
more traditional Windows interface- without quite as much hand-holding as Photo
DeluxeMicrosoft's Picture It! 2000 ( http://www.microsoft.com ) is a good choice. One thing that's really handy about Picture It! ($54.95) is the way it works so easily With other Microsoft products. For example, you can drag an image from Pick" IV and drop it into your Microsoft Word or Publisher document-end keep on editing it right on your new Page. There's no need to jump back and forth between Picture It! and the other software applicable.
One of the most attractive strengths of MGI Software's PhotoSuite III Platinum Edition ( http://www.mgisoft.com ) lies in its ability to help you got your digital photographs organized. It has a very powerful "album" feature that lets you categorize your photos and tag them with keywords. That makes it easier to find the right photo-weeks or months later.
Phot Suite 111 ($49.95) also includes a tool that lets you quickly put photos on a Web site, generating thumbnail previews and full-size images. The program runs on Windows 95/98 and includes Internet Explorer 5 (required for the Web-publishing features).
SierraHome's SnapShot ( http://www.siorra.com ) is also strong in the organization category. In addition to all the basic photoretouching functions, it lets you password protect your digital photo albums so that they're not accidentally. (or intentionally) tampered with. SnapShot ($29.95, Windows only) also lets you co - compress entire photo albums so they're easier to send to family and friends across the Internet.
All of these programs-have similar photo-fixing features, and they help you create a dazzling array of projects. I favor Adobe PhotoDeluxe for its interface and user assistance, but you can't go wrong with any of the others.
One last suggestion: If your child is into Barbie, you might want to check out Mattel's Barbie Photo Designer digital camera. The package includes a very low-end digital camera and Barbie-themed photo-edding software-all for about 70 bucks.