30 Chapter 5: Basic Touchup

Setting the white Correcting a Color Cast

balance on a When you take photographs, the source of the light can create a colored cast in
digital camera the photo. We tend to think of light being white, but nearly every light source
Many digital cameras has its own unique color. For example, natural sunlight has a large component
allow you to set the
of blue in it, while incandescent (tungsten) lights—including most household
light bulbs—give off a reddish or yellowish cast.
white balance for
specific types of light, When taking a photo, you can compensate for these different colors of light by
such as sunlight, setting the white balance (with a digital camera), or using special filters (on a
incandescent, and film camera). But if you still end up with a cast in your photos, use the adjust
flash. Using this feature tint task to correct the balance of colors to make the lighting look more natural.
can help reduce tint In this task, you locate a point that should be white, and then Picture It! bal-
problems in your ances all of the colors in the picture based on the white point you set.
photos. If you have already used the Levels auto fix or Color auto fix tool, the tint
problems in the picture may already be corrected. Use the adjust color task to
make additional adjustments to the tint.
Zooming in to To adjust tint:
find white
1. On the Touchup menu, click Adjust Color.
If there are no
The mouse pointer becomes an eyedropper when positioned over the
significant areas of
picture.
white in your photo, use
2. With the eyedropper, click an area in the picture that should be grey or
the zoom controls to
neutral—in other words, not too colorful, too dark, or too light.
magnify the picture on
Picture It! automatically corrects the colors.
the screen. When you
zoom in, you may be
3. If you are not satisfied with the results, use the sliders for fine-tuning.
able to use a very small 4. Click Done.
area of white, such as
the whites of a person’s
eyes.

Microsoft Picture It! Express User’s Manual

32 Chapter 5: Basic Touchup

Straightening a Picture
If you took a photograph while unintentionally holding the camera at an angle,
the horizon or other straight lines will appear tilted. This tilt can be a distrac-
tion in the picture, but is easily fixed with the Straighten Picture tool.

The Straighten Picture tool rotates the picture to make the horizon level.

To make the horizon level, the Straighten Picture tool rotates the picture on
the canvas. When rotated, part of the picture overlaps the edge of the canvas,
and these areas would be removed during printing. The rotation also creates
empty areas at the corners of the canvas. Fortunately, these problems are solved
by the Auto Crop feature which is part of the Straighten Picture tool. After
you straighten the picture, Auto Crop trims the edges of the picture so that it
becomes aligned with the canvas.

To straighten a picture with Auto Crop:

1. On the Format menu, click Straighten Picture, and then click Canvas.
2. Identify a line in the picture that should be straight (such as the horizon),
and then click one end of the line.
3. Click the other end of the line.
The picture is automatically straightened.
4. Make sure the Auto Crop check box is selected.
The area of the picture that will be cropped is shown in lightened color
around the edges.
5. Click Done.

Microsoft Picture It! Express User’s Manual

 Chapter 5: Basic Touchup 33

Cropping
Cropping is an easy way to improve the composition of a photograph. For
example, if your picture has distracting background elements along the top,
bottom, or side, you can crop away these parts of the background to focus the
attention on the subject.
When you crop a photo, you are removing pixels, and therefore lowering the
effective resolution (although the dots per inch will stay the same). If you crop
a significant portion of the original, you’re limiting the extent to which you will
be able to enlarge the picture for printing. This is why it’s better to compose the
picture as best you can when you take it, rather than relying on heavy cropping
later.

Cropping a picture allows you to eliminate distractions and improve the composition.

Cropping your picture to a specific proportion lets you control exactly where
the picture will be cut. Otherwise, if your picture is not the same proportion as
the print size, some of the picture may be trimmed during printing to fit into the
printable area of the page.

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34 Chapter 5: Basic Touchup

Using the rule of thirds

When composing a photograph, many beginning photographers consistently
center their subject directly in the middle of the frame. While this technique
may be the easiest way to get the subject in focus with a point-and-shoot
camera, it is not always the most interesting way to present the subject.
Most advanced photographers follow the rule of thirds when composing the
space inside a picture frame. The rule of thirds is used throughout the graphic
design world, because it helps to create balance between the subject and the
background. When you compose a picture according to the rule of thirds, you
mentally divide the frame into thirds both horizontally and vertically (imagine
a tic-tac-toe grid), and place the point of interest on one of the four spots where
the lines intersect.
If the photo includes a person or animal, you can place the face on one of the
four points, looking toward the center of the scene. If the photo includes the
horizon, it should run about one-third from the top or one-third from the bot-
tom, depending on whether the terrain or the sky is the center of focus.

The cropped picture is a more interesting composition since it follows the rule of thirds.

To crop a photo using the rule of thirds:

1. On the Format menu, point to Crop, and then click Canvas.
2. Under Select a proportion, click a proportion.
3. Select the Show guidelines for the rule of thirds check box.
4. Click a starting point on your photo, and then drag the outline to the
opposite corner of the area to be cropped.
The guidelines show the cropped area divided into thirds vertically and
horizontally.
5. Move and resize the cropped area so a focal point in the picture is
positioned at one of the intersections of the guidelines.
6. Click Done.

Microsoft Picture It! Express User’s Manual

36 Chapter 6: Batch Editing in Mini Lab

1. The Open more files button opens the file browser to let you find more
pictures to edit.
2. The editing options list shows all of the tasks available for batch editing.
3. File options let you save or print multiple photos.
4. The Workspace in Mini Lab contains thumbnails of all of your opened
pictures.
5. The Done button closes Mini Lab, keeping the photos open and maintain-
ing the changes you have made. To save photos before leaving Mini Lab,
select the thumbnails and click Save before you click Done.
6. The Cancel button closes Mini Lab, undoing any unsaved changes.

To open Mini Lab from Picture It!:

1. On the Touchup menu, click Batch Edit in Mini Lab.

To open Mini Lab from the Library:

1. In the Thumbnail pane, select the pictures you want to edit.
2. On the Tasks menu, click Batch Edit in Mini Lab.

When the Mini Lab starts, it automatically displays all pictures that were open
in the application. Select the photos you want to edit, and then click one or more
editing tasks For the changes t6o be applied automatically.

Microsoft Picture It! Express User’s Manual

7 Adding Edges 37

When you’ve finished editing a photo, you add a polishing touch by surround-
ing it with soft or highlighted edges. Shrinking a
picture to show
the edge effect
Edge Effects Some edge effects
Edge effects alter the outside edge of a photo. For portrait photos, try the soft appear only behind and
edge effect. To draw attention to photos that you post on a Web site, try apply- outside the picture. So if
ing one of the highlighted edges. your picture reaches the
edge of the canvas, you
might not be able to see
the edge effect when
you print it or save it to
the Web.
To make sure you can
see an edge you’ve
added, make sure the
object is not locked to
the canvas, and then
the press the CTRL key
while you drag in one of
the photo’s corner resize
handles. This will shrink
The photo on the left has highlighted edges applied, which work great for photos on the Web
and in e-mail. The photo on the right has been enhanced with soft edges. the photo proportionally
on the canvas, so that
the border lies within the
To add an edge effect: printable area.
1. On the Stack, click the layer to which you want to add the edge effect.
2. On the Effects menu, point to Edges, and then click an edge effect or
border.
3. If available, click a specific edge or border.
4. Follow the instructions on the screen to customize the size or color of the
edge or border.
5. Click Done.

Microsoft Picture It! Express User’s Manual