Useful Tools For Working With Pictures
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
There are many tools to work with multimedia. Some are free and some can be very expensive.
I want to share with you some that I am using and have used in the past.
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My cellphone and Tablet
Today you don’t need expensive cameras and video cameras. Most cellphones and tablets can take good pictures. It is convenient because it is always with you. Also you can easily upload the pictures to either your computer or directly to the internet. -
Screenshots on the Tablet
Sometimes I want to save something on my screen and put it in my blog. An example is the picture of the app icons below. On an android phone you can capture the screen by pressing the center button and the side button. I am sure there is also a way to do it on an iphone.Tip: Use the screenshots for recipes:
I also use this tool to copy recipes from the internet. I like having recipes on my tablet since I can bring it into the kitchen more easily than my computer and it is bigger than my camera.Most recipes I find on the internet fit on one screen and instead of remembering where they are on the internet I take a screenshot and save them in one directory. It also enables me to add comments if I change something in the recipe and want to remember what I did. -
Screenshots on the Computer
In Windows, there is a tool called the snipping tool. You can snip the whole screen or part of it. It is useful if I want to show how to do something on the computer.
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Photo editing on the Phone or Tablet
You can download picture editing apps to edit the pictures directly on the computer.
I have a Samsung phone and tablet and use the photo editor that they provide and am happy with it. They are basic but do the job.
What I need in a photo editor is mainly to crop and resize so that the file isn’t too big. Depending on if you want something that takes the whole width or part of it, a width of between 300-600 pixels is all that you need.
There are also many other free or paid photo editors available depending on what phone/tablet you have.The picture below is a screenshot cropped with the photo editor and shows the photo editor I use.
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Photo editors on the Computer
On my computer I often use Paint, that comes with windows to do the basic photo editing. I can crop and resize with it, which are the main two things I need.
In the past I used Photoshop, which has windows and apple versions. In fact I learned to use it on a Mac before there was a Windows version (am I giving away my age by saying that?) It’s a great program and has lots of options. The only disadvantage is the learning curve to discover the wealth of options it has. If you want something professional, I would strongly recommend it.
However, if you are just starting out and/or want to save money, you can get by with Paint.
