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Photo editing

cookie273uk

cookie273uk

master brummie
Can any one recommend FREE software for improving pics, such as cropping, lightening, darkening, increasing colour etc... and fairly simple to follow. Eric
 
Hi,

If you scroll to the very bottom of the BHS home web page you see there is a whole section for Computer Help

Computer Help

Have you got a problem with your PC, Mac or any other system for that matter? Post a message in here and one of our community will help you if they can.
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk

I use a free product called Paint.Net which can do all you want, but not sure if it the best or the easiest to use.

Download it from here (ignore all the large "Download" buttons and click on Download Now from Dot PDN)

 
up to yesterday, if I wished to edit a pic I merely clicked the pic in my pic file, it would then enlarge and in top RH corner would be 'edit' and I could do anything with pic, but now when I click on pic it still enlarges but appears on 'paint' with no way of editing pic. Any ideas ? Eric
 
Not sure but if you right click on the picture it should give you an 'open with' option where you can choose which programme to open it with, maybe you've set it to open with paint by accident.
 
cookie273uk said:
up to yesterday, if I wished to edit a pic I merely clicked the pic in my pic file, it would then enlarge and in top RH corner would be 'edit' and I could do anything with pic, but now when I click on pic it still enlarges but appears on 'paint' with no way of editing pic. Any ideas ? Eric
Click to expand...
Eric, you may have previously been using Win 10 'Photos' which is the default photo editor with Win 10.

As mentioned in post#2 right click on the photo file.

A dialogue box appears and halfway down it click 'open with'.

A small window opens and then left click on 'Choose another app'

Another small window appears so then click on 'Photos' and tick the box for 'Always use this app to open .jpg files'

Then click 'ok'.
 
There is the 'built-in' Windows 10 Photo Editor. It is a bit 'clunky' but it works for simple photo editing and is the default program with Win 10. It can crop, re-size, lighten, darken, sharpen, increase colour, one-click enhance etc ....

I use the free Gimp 2.8 for editing most of the old street pics and courtyard pics I upload to the forum. It can do most things Photoshop can do but has a very steep learning curve. See a result from it here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/hobbies.46731/post-639384

I also use the more user friendly Paintshop Pro 5. It has been around for about 15 years and old versions such as PSP 5. are free. See what it looks like here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/hobbies.46731/post-607291
 
oldMohawk, followed your instructions but after 2nd small window a menu of about 9 options appeared, paint, paint 3D, IE etc, but NO 'Photos'. It was OK yesterday morning, but stopped working in the afternoon. Eric
 
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Phil,

The only problem I have noticed with Windows 10 and non-Microsoft products is that Windows 10 definitely does not like you making them as the default! I normally use PhotoImpact X3 - excellent for what Eric wants to use it for, and originally by the Japanese company Ulead. Then Corel bought them out because it wanted to acquire another product in their range, but was soon abandoned in favour of their own Paint Shop Pro. Now they will issue it as a Free Trial Download for 30 days, but will not sell it, offering to sell you Paint Shop Pro instead.

I've gone through all the usual "Open With" & "Make this the default in future", which works for a few days, then it switches your default back to its own product on the pretence of there being an "error". It behaves the same with Irfanview, a freebie which has one minor drawback in that you can't open more than one picture at a time.

Maurice
 
sospiri said:
Phil,

The only problem I have noticed with Windows 10 and non-Microsoft products is that Windows 10 definitely does not like you making them as the default! I normally use PhotoImpact X3 - excellent for what Eric wants to use it for, and originally by the Japanese company Ulead. Then Corel bought them out because it wanted to acquire another product in their range, but was soon abandoned in favour of their own Paint Shop Pro. Now they will issue it as a Free Trial Download for 30 days, but will not sell it, offering to sell you Paint Shop Pro instead.

I've gone through all the usual "Open With" & "Make this the default in future", which works for a few days, then it switches your default back to its own product on the pretence of there being an "error". It behaves the same with Irfanview, a freebie which has one minor drawback in that you can't open more than one picture at a time.

Maurice
Click to expand...
Hi Maurice,
The method below always works for me. If I don't use it, Win 10 reverts to default on restarts.
After the right click on file I do as below ...
You can see I use Picasa Photo View to look at images ... it can cycle through files ... and has some quick edit features ...
132610
Phil
 
That's precisely my point, Phil. I use that procedure and it works quite happily for a few days, and then reverts to their default after putting up some silly excuse about an error, sometimes while I am not even looking at pictures! And very rarely do I never do a complete shutdown every night.

Maurice
 
That seem strange Maurice. The above always works for me and if one of Microsoft's apps annoyed me I would uninstall it.

You've probably noticed that MS allow some of their apps to be uninstalled with right clicks on the W10 start menu tiles but for some apps there is no uninstall option. However they can be uninstalled using a command line in Powershell but not a procedure for everyone to try

For some reason (can't remember why now) I did not want their 'Officehub' and removed it with following line in Powershell

Get-AppxPackage * officehub * | Remove-AppxPackage

You just put their app name between the stars. To stop Xenforo interpreting the stars as operators I have had to insert spaces before and after the app name. They are not needed in the Powershell command line.

Phil
 
cookie273uk said:
Can any one recommend FREE software for improving pics, such as cropping, lightening, darkening, increasing colour etc... and fairly simple to follow. Eric
Click to expand...
Google 'Gimp'. This is a free picture editing program with all the functions that photoshop has.
 
Forget my post #8. Had 'lost' my Windows Photos, but have managed to download it again, and it does all I need (mainly for my editing paintings). Eric
 
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