Tuesday, August 16, 2016

TUESDAY’S TIP ~ Another way to edit your images in Microsoft Office Picture Manager


My “go to” program for editing pictures and documents that are JPG format, is Microsoft Office 2010 Picture Manager.  It’s easy, quick and efficient.  I even recently found out I can still use this program on my new HP laptop that has Windows 10.  Sadly, Microsoft discontinued the Picture Manager portion of their Office suite in recent versions.

BUT, if you still love and use this program as I do, here’s my newly discovered edit feature.  And, silly me, I thought I knew this program inside and out.  Just goes to show, we always have things to learn.

Today we are talking about those images that are too dark.  Let’s say you download an image that looks like this.  I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want this image attached to my Legacy file or anywhere else.

Lunsford pension before
Once the image is opened in Microsoft Picture Manager (which is set as my default), you would select the “Edit Pictures” option.

Lunsford edit pictures

Now choose “color” in the right hand column.

Lunsford color

Now select “Enhance Color”

Lunsford enhance color

You see the grey wording underneath “enhance color?”  Once you click on the icon, those words turn dark, like this.

Lunsford enhance color-2

Just take your mouse and move over the image.  You’ll see a little round target kind of pointer show up.   It looks similar to this.target-pointer-aim-cursor-round-128

Once you see that target pointer, just click on any area that should be white.  BINGO!

Here is the result.  Compare it to the image at the top of my post.

Lunsford after correction

Depending on the image, you’ll get different degrees of resolution.  I personally think this looks much better.

For the past 6 years I have used Adobe Photoshop Elements to make this kind of change.  However, it required an extra step because all my images automatically open in Microsoft Office Picture Manager.  I rotate and crop them in that program.  Now I can just stay there and perform this addition fix.

I wrote a previous post about making adjustments to the images we download.  Easy Document Editing

I hope you found this post helpful.  I just had to share this tip with you, in case, like me, you didn’t know this either.
 
Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

7 comments:

  1. Seriously Diane, I have the program and have never used it! Tried it out on one of my old photographs, a man with a white shirt. It really popped! Thanks. ~ Cathy

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    1. Cathy - so glad it worked well for you. Its' just a nifty little quick program for some of the edits more commonly performed by all of us as genealogists.

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  2. I envy your tech abilities. I really wrestle with so many of them so I love it when you share your tips and tricks!

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    1. Glad my posts are helpful Michelle. I'm a little bit of a geek and have always loved techie stuff. Contact me any time, if you think I might be able to assist you.

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  3. I have a Mac, but I will keep the concept in mind for use in other programs. I don't know why I never thought of cleaning up document images this way! Thanks for the tip.

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    1. I didn't think of it either when I started researching many years ago Anna. But, now I've gone through all my images and straightened them and removed the black borders and lightened them up. They look so much better in reports, in my database and if or when I share them with someone else.
      Thanks for stopping by.

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  4. I've been using MS Picture Manager for years since when it first came into use. I found it easy and quick to use. However, I also do use Photoshop. Both are great and I use them for different reasons/needs. Like you, my MS Picture Manager is also set on default for editing photos, however, I always use my File Explorer (old name was Windows Explorer) to organize my own photos into manageable folders so I am able to find them easily. I never go to MS Picture Manager to find the pictures. When I find the photo I want to edit, I use right-click on the mouse and then click on "Open with" and then I choose either MS Picture Manager OR Photoshop. It's great feature because it takes me immediately to the editing software and then I can work with it. There is also another way, I made icons for both photo editing software and put them in the bottom task bar of my monitor. After selecting and opening one of the two photo editing apps, I then proceed to go to find the photo and then click on that one to open. Then I can edit. I use both methods all the time. When the photo needs cropping and nothing else, I usually use MS Picture Manager. I use Photoshop for straightening, cropping, and even converting the picture to another picture format if I need to.

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I look forward to reading your comments. If you have any connection to the people mentioned in this blog, please let me know. I write about mine and my husband's ancestors and would welcome new information or meeting a new cousin or two. Thanks for visiting and come back soon.