The trend of editing photos has been on the rise since several years now. Whether it’s a personal portrait or a scenic photo, most of us would like to get it edited and enhanced.
While most individuals want their pictures to look more beautiful as well as professional, not everyone is proficient in using technical tools like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. What can they do then?
Well, Windows 10’s Photos App is there to aid all such people. Although only considered a photo viewing app, Photos is way more powerful than you would imagine. It offers a bunch of basic photo editing options that you could use to uplift your photos without having prior technical experience. Do you know what the best part is? Windows’ Photo App ensures that the image quality is not hampered at all.
In this guide, we’ll introduce you to some of the most simple yet bewildering things you could do with the Photos App, along with a few other tricks.
Trick # 1: Optimizing Your Photos To Publish Them Online
Optimizing or reducing the size of your photo will simply make it easier for you to upload it online. Be it uploading on a social media site or simply sending it to a friend, optimizing your photo will always save you some time.
There are several online tools that allow you to optimize your photos without having to register or something. One such free tool is Image Optimizer. Here’s how you could use it:
- Go to Image Optimizer’s website.
- Hit the Choose File button.
- Navigate and open the file that you want to compress.
- Click on Quality to open up a drop down menu.
- Select the quality type of your choice. You’ll have options like Minimum File Size or Normal.
- Hit the Optimize Now button.
- Once your compressed file is processed, you can easily download it to your computer.
This tool holds the capacity to reduce file sizes upto 20% of the original size. It’s noteworthy that the image quality is not hindered throughout the optimization process.
Trick # 2: Using Image Resolutions Within Optimum Ranges
You might not have paid enough attention to this before but each social media platform tells its users the optimal size ranges for photos that could help users increase engagement on their posts. These ranges have been recommended after using different data analysis techniques and thus, are surely beneficial.
Here are a few social media platforms and their recommended file sizes in pixels:
- Facebook = 1200 * 630
- WhatsApp = 800 * 800
- Instagram = 1080 * 1350
- Snapchat = 750 * 1334
- Twitter = 1024 * 512
- Pinterest = 735 * 1102
Now, coming to what you can do with the Windows Photos App itself.
Trick # 3: Crop Out Unwanted Parts From Your Photos
Seeing any unwanted items in the background of your portrait? Want to get rid of the ugly bushes in your group photo? Crop them out! Whether you want to turn a rectangular picture into a square for a photo frame or vice versa, cropping is the ultimate solution.
Apart from this, there are pre-recommended aspect ratios for different devices. Depending on your requirements, you could choose from any of them. Here’s a list of a few example aspect ratios:
- Smartphone = 16:9
- TV (Standard) = 4:3
- HDTV = 16:9
- Tablet = 16:10/4:3
- Projector/iPad = 4:3
To change aspect ratios within the Windows Photos App, follow these simple steps:
- Open the image you want to edit via the Photos App
- Navigate towards the Crop and Rotate tab.
- On the right side, you’ll see a drop down menu labelled as Aspect Ratio. Open it.
- Finally, select your prefered ratio. You”ll have a bunch of options such as 7:5, 3:2, and Square.
- Once the changes have been made, you can click on Save A Copy or simply Save.
- In case you want to retain the original image again, simply choose the Original option.
Trick # 4: Play Around With Different Shades & Colors:
Windows Photos App offers around 15 different image filters that automatically detect the theme of your photo and adjust its features such as brightness and contrast automatically. With just a few simple clicks, you can change the entire look of your photo and make it look quite aesthetic as well as professional.
- Open the picture you wish to edit via the Photos App
- Navigate towards the tab Filter.
- On the right hand side of your screen, you will now be able to see a variety of different filters along with previews of your selected image. Your options may include distinct names like Lacrus, Rouge, Slate, and Neo.
- Once your desired changes have been made, you can click Save them.
- If you want to retain the original image, simply select the Original option.
Trick # 5: Fixing Distortions and Red Eye Issues
If you are someone who regularly clicks pictures, works with them or at least sees them online, you would be aware of different distortions and the most common red eye issue. These originate due to camera flashes or excessive brightness. Such minute things can ruin a perfect photo. However, Windows Photo App offers an ideal solution for this.
- Once you have opened your image file, look for the option saying “Get Creative With This Photo”.
- From here, hit the Edit option.
- Head towards the Adjustment tab.
- On the right hand side, you will see the Red Eye button. Upon clicking on it, your mouse pointer automatically turns into this bluish circle.
- Now, navigate this pointer and click on the exact point where you wish to remove red eyes from.
- To adjust the picture quality, you can play around with the Clarity slider.
- Once you’re satisfied with the changes, you can save a copy for yourself.
I bet you weren’t aware of all 5 of these tricks before reading through the article or were you? You might underestimate these techniques for now but once you try them out, you’ll realize how essential they could be. These will save you lots of time and you won’t have to worry about learning high-tech advanced tools. Have anything to add? Let us know in the comments below.