{Adding Finishing Touches to Pictures}

Recently Monica from Sweet Peas and Happy Things asked me about the 'new tiled pictures' I was using. This led me to do this little post on adding some nice touches to your pictures.

I assume many who stop by my blog are familiar with Google's software for pictures, Picasa. But even if you do know about it, you may have not downloaded it or used it. I have been using Adobe which is great for fixing photos taken by a not so great photographer {myself}. But Picasa has been amazingly easy to use and gets even better results for someone who doesn't have time or the know-how to fool with the intricacies of Adobe.

So for anyone interested out there, just download Picasa 3 from Google. When you are on Google home page, just click on the little toolbar option that reads "More" and choose "Photos." From that point, there should be a note at the bottom of the page for Picasa 3 with a line about editing and organizing your photos. Once you download it, play around with it.

There is a ton I haven't learned about it, but it has already offered so much. Such as the "tile" feature which is done with the collage aspect of Picasa. Just select photos and use the little thumbtack to save them on the workspace then click on the "Collage" button. The computer automatically arranges them, but if you want a different arrangement you can shuffle them.


Another great feature on the edit page is the "Soft Focus" button. This gently blurs the perimeter of the picture to give a dreamy effect or hide things that don't exactly benefit the aesthetic quality of your photo.


Here is a picture from my daughter's birthday party. I love the expression on the little girl's face on the far left, but I didn't want to crop the picture because her expression is a result of what is happening in the whole scene. So I blurred it all except the area around her face.


I liked it but wanted to soften it more so I used the "Filtered B&W" button.


I know it could still be a much better quality photo, but the part I really liked about it is in focus while the rest is put to the side instead of being completely cut out of the story.

Try it out. Have fun with it. It has made my life so much easier and given me some pictures that I can share which I may not have before.