Edit Your Images with Photoscape 3.3

Many amateur photographers look for software that can effectively alter and edit their images. Many software programs offer one thing, but not another, and others offer something that other ones don't. Ulead Photo Express editing software allows photographers to alter the coloration, brightness, and add different textures along with cropping, but there are things that it does not allow you to do. Google offers Picasa for free that allows one to edit software. GIMP is a great alternative to Photoshop that allows one to edit their images, and many people who use it suggest it. All these softwares are wonderful and will do the job that you want them too, as will Photoscape 3.3. Just like GIMP and Google Picasa, it is free. I was a little skeptical about it when I downloaded it to just try and see, but I admit I was very impressed with what I saw.

You can alter the coloration, only to black and white and sephia. Where as with Ulead Photo Express, you can make them into different colors like reds, oranges or whatever other color you want. So far that is one downfall, that you can only do black and white and sephia, but generally speaking most people only do those two color manipulations. Along with the color editing, you can invert the image or you can make the image into a negative which in turn makes it look really neat. You can add little thought or saying bubbles over your friend's heads making them say things. You can choose different shapes and sizes with the thought bubble, and you can add text onto the picture, giving it like a title. That tool can help if you are a scrap-booker and like to add little short comments on the image.

Along with manipulating the image itself you can add texture to it like making it look like a swirl, mirrored image, or even making it look like it is a box or glass tiles. Some people like the aspect of making the image to look like an oil painting, cartoon or other forms of art and forming images. There is an aspect to Photoscape 3.3 that other softwares that I haven't seen yet, the ability to make the image look like an antique photo or to add frames and black edges. You can fade the coloration on the image, making it look duller than it is. Along the same lines, just like many other photo editing softwares you can brighten the image or darken it. Photoscape even allows you to draw on the image, so you can add little things to it, though I am not one to want to draw on my pictures. It seems like you can draw whatever you wanted to on the picture. You can also add aspects to the photo such as making the border swirl or the image a circle.

GIMP I have been told is hard to understand and has many windows open which can get annoying, for example you have the viewer then the tool palette then the new image. It can be hard to switch from window to window. With photoscape you can see how the image will look with the alterations you have made, and if you don't like how it looks you can easily undo just one thing at a time or undo it all. One great advantage with PhotoScape 3.3 is that when you alter an image, the program saves the original in another folder in case you want to go back to the original photograph. That way you don't have to manually copy and then paste the image again or save it under a different name. It will also create a folder named "originals" for the original photo to be stored in. One problem I have found with the software is that if you are saving it to a photo memory card like you stick into your camera, the images that you don't change seem to get distorted and not in a good way. There is a batch edit option where you can edit a group of photos and print them one at a time or as a group.

PhotoScape 3.3 is compatible with Windows Vista, Windows 95, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows 98 operating systems. The help menu is restricted and there isn't a tutorial like you would find with Photoshop, but many people like myself enjoy figuring out for themselves and play with the different features. If you don't like how something looks you can undo what was done. It installs very quickly and has a navigator when you open it up, and then there are tabbed featurs at the top of the window. The program also supports 23 different languages that include Portugese(Brazil), Thai, Hungarian, Turkish, Catalan, Slovak, Czech, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and many others. The new version of the program has added a new feature of "mole removal," where you can obviously remove moles from your image.

With any photo editing software there will be advantages and disadvantages. Some will do things you want them to do, and others will do other things. Many do some of the same such as cropping, brightening, and color manipulation. Photoscape 3.3 is a wonderful software that I would recommend to anyone. It can be downloaded at download.com. Kimberly Spann has a wonderful article on Where To Find Photo Editing Software On The Internet where she talks about differe software that you can download off the internet and where you can find them. I recommend reading her article as well as Shawbelt's article on Tips For Finding A Good Photo Editing Software.. Based on your desires and needs with photo editing, you can find a pretty good photo editing software that is free. Photoscape 3.3 has everything the beginning photographer/photo editor could want or need to learn how do make pictures look better with a manipulation software such as PhotoScape, Picasa, GIMP and all the others that are on the market.