1 NVCC Alexandria Campus Editing Photographs Using Microsoft Picture Manager Introduction Microsoft Picture Manager is an image editing program that allows you to browse/organize your photos, resize and crop images, remove red eye, and make changes to color, brightness and contrast. This program is particularly useful for resizing and editing photos for use on the web. Microsoft Picture Manager comes as a part of the Microsoft Office 2003 Suite. You can visit the Microsoft Office web site to learn more about Microsoft Picture Manager. Other popular image editors are Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks and Paint Shop Pro. In this tutorial, we will be using Picture Manager as it is very easy to use, and has likely already been installed on your computer. What You Will Need You will need the following items to complete this template: Microsoft Picture Manager Photo This photo can either be of yourself or an image of something that relates to your subject area, interests, or hobbies. You may want to work with a photo that you can later use on your personal web page. If you have not yet created a page, visit the Faculty and Staff Template site to learn more about how to create one (http://www.nvcc.edu/alexandria/fstemplate).
Step 1: Locate Photo to Edit We will be using a few buttons on the Composition Toolbar and some various options to work on the template web page. Everything you need is already on the web page, but you will be making some minor adjustments to them. There are a few buttons that you should be aware of in order to change the existing information to your own details. 1. Opening Picture Manager can be done two ways: Go to the Start menu Programs Microsoft Office Microsoft Office Tools Microsoft Office Picture Manager 2. Picture Manager will open. On the left hand side of the screen is a panel called Getting Started. From this panel, you will be able to open the photo that you would like to edit. 3. If you know where the picture is on your computer, click on Add a New Picture Shortcut. Navigate to the folder where your picture is stored, and click Open. The folder will open (and will show all of the pictures that are inside). Click on the photo that you would like to edit. 4. If you do not know where your picture is on your computer, and you would like Picture Manager to search your computer for all photos, click on Locate Pictures. Picture Manager will then search your computer for all of the photos available. 5. Once you have found the photo that you would like to edit, simply click on the photo to open it up in the middle panel. You are now ready to edit your photo. 6. On the bottom of the screen is a slider labeled Zoom. By moving this slider back and forth, you can adjust the Preview Size of the photo. We will be adjusting the actual size of the photo in Step 4: Changing Picture Size. 7. You can edit the zoom on the top of the screen as well. Simply click on the drop down box at the top of the screen listing a percentage. For the purposes of this tutorial, set the zoom at 100%. 2
Step 2: Auto Correct and Brightness/Contrast/Color 1. Once you have opened the photo that you would like to edit, the Edit Pictures menu appears on the left. 2. Auto Correct will automatically adjust your colors, brightness (the lightness/darkness of the picture overall), and contrast (the difference between the lights and darks in the picture). Click Auto Correct to see the values that Picture Manager recommends. There may not be a huge change made to the picture depending on your particular picture. Look at the difference between the photos below. Auto Correct increased the contrast and brightness (picture on the right), making the colors appear more saturated. 3
3. If the photo does not look correct after using Auto Correct, click on the blue left arrow button at the top of the screen. This will undo the Auto Correction. You can use this button to undo any/all changes that you make to your photo. You can also Undo by clicking on Edit > Undo or Ctrl-Z. 4. Now take a look at the series of buttons under Auto Correct. We will begin by taking a look at the manual adjustments for brightness, contrast and color. Assignment 1 Click on Brightness and Contrast. Experiment by moving the sliders for Brightness and Contrast to the left and right. As you move the sliders, you will notice that the photo adjusts automatically. Play around with the Midtone sliders as well. Note that moving the sliders ever so slightly will often make a big difference to your photo. When the photo looks correct, click on Back to Edit Pictures at the bottom of the screen. Assignment 2 Click on Colors. Choose the Enhance Color button. Picture Manager will correct the Color Balance in your photo. Just like the Auto Correct button, this may make a subtle or drastic change to your photo. If the changes are too drastic, click on the Undo button. When you are finished, click on Back to Edit Pictures at the bottom of the screen. 4
Step 3: Cropping Your Photo 1. Click on Crop. A series of tools will appear on the left side of the screen that will all allow you to trim your photo. 2. Aspect Ratio allows you to choose from a set of predefined sizes and crop your photo to that size. 3. You can designate where you would like the crop handles to fall using the Crop Handles. 4. You can also click and drag the cross-hairs on the corner of the photo to crop the photo manually. The click and drag method is the easiest way to crop your photo. 5. The original dimensions and the new dimensions of the photo are listed last. 6. After you have cropped your photo to the right size, click on ok. The picture will be trimmed to the size that you have specified. 5
7. Click on Back to Edit Pictures. Step 4: Changing Picture Size 1. Click on Resize. 2. Tools to resize your photo will appear on the menu, along with a Size Setting Summary letting you know the size of your photo. 3. The best method for resizing your photo is by using the Percentage of Original Width x Height tool. This allows you to resize your photo without distortion. Simply enter a value into the box for the amount that you would like to increase/decrease the size your photo. 6
4. After entering a value, you will notice that the Size Setting Summary will tell you the new size for the photo. If you are planning to use the photo with the Faculty/Staff web template, size your photo to around 200 x 200 pixels. 5. When your photo is at an appropriate size, click on OK. Your photo will be resized according the values that you have chosen. 6. Click on Back to Edit Pictures Step 5: Finishing Up 1. Feel free to use any of the other tools to edit your photo further. Below is a listing of some other tools that you may find useful: The View buttons allow you to choose how you would like photos to be displayed on the screen. Thumbnail View and Filmstrip View are particularly useful if you plan to edit several pictures. The Rotation buttons let you adjust the orientation of the picture. The Preview Button lets you cycle through photos that are in a particular folder. These buttons are also useful if you plan to edit several photos. 2. When your are finished editing, click on File > Save As. Save your photo to a desired location for later use. 7