Edit Those Vintage Photos



edit-imagesThe perfect time with the holidays to go over family photos. Have everyone check what they have and to bring them to the family gatherings. Use originals rather than copies.

Scan the photos, making them 200-300 DPI in resolution and in size about 1000 pixels. Just look as you scan then save each photo, it will show what settings are available. Don’t overlook those vintage photos with scratches, marks, because they can be fixed up.

Using the free online site of Picasa 3.9 version, after you have the photos in digital format, most can be restored to their original glory. The Picasa site (developed by Google), you download (upper right side) the program to your computer. edit picsFollow their directions.

Then the program will find and display your photo images. You can then select which ones you want to fix up or even do some special effects to. Using the Auto Adjust – one button, the enhancements and repairs can be detected and fixed. There is also the retouch tool to repair major cracks or lines you want removed. Reminder, you can edit, enhance even newer photos, not just vintage ones.

Other things you can do with Picasa is add text to a photo. That is great to do. Have one photo with no writing and then one with writing where the individuals in the photo are identified including the date and place. If you don’t want text on a photo you can place a caption instead.

edit exThe program allows you to email those photos you worked on or to upload the images to Google Photos site. You delete the photos at any time or arrange them in a specific order. Another feature is the ability to add a ‘watermark’ to a photo, that way no one can ‘steal’ the photo without your mark on it. If you later want to delete the Picasa program, you can uninstall very easily.

A great, worthwhile project … getting family photos scanned and fixed up.

Photos: Editing images.

Related FamilyTree.com genealogical blogs:

Digital Scrapbook

Make it Digital

 

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