Post processing is an important step. You can really make any snap look better by adjusting few parameters. Read on....
1). Adding contrast
What is 'Contrast Ratio'?
Contrast ratio is measured as the difference between the brightest and darkest colors on the screen. You can treat it as the ratio between brightest white and the darkest black on the given screen. For example, a 1000:1 contrast ratio means that the brightest white is 1000x brighter than the darkest black. If you want the best picture possible, you need to have more ratio between the brightest white and the darkest black. It can also be thought as the amount of shades between black and white. For better quality image, you need to have more shades between black and white. However, there could be instances where higher contrast ratio looks bad.
1.1). Adding contrast in Picasa
Contrast brings life to a snap. Picasa is very easy use tool which provides user friendly options for adjusting contrast, cropping, straightening, shadows, highlights. Adjust these parameters appropriately to make your snap better.
1.2). Adding contrast in GMP:
We can adjust contrast by going to 'Colors -> Brightness-Contrast Tool'. But, we can achieve better results by using following tools. Links will give you more info on how to make use of these tools.
- Colors -> Levels [http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/levels.htm]
- Colors -> Curves [http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/photoshop-curves.htm]
2). Cropping
Crop the snap appropriately so that the object which you want focus gets it's share of space. Below mentioned rules can bring better look. Ideally, you should be following these rules while taking the snap but you may improve the snap further by following these rules during post processing.
2.1). 50-50 Rule
If you want to capture 'cloudy hill' then you can make the snap symmetric by giving 50% area to clouds and remaining 50% area to hills. If you want to project certain portion more, it should get more area in the snap.
2.2). 'Rule of Thirds' or '2/3rd Rule'
In this rule, objects in the snap are given 2/3rd or 1/3rd of the area. Usually, objects are confined to 1/3rd of the area. Instead of having objects like 'crime convicts' in the middle, it's good cover the space in which the object is located. For example: If you are covering birthday cake with candles, confine it to 1/3rd of the space and leave the remaining space blank instead of covering just cake in the middle. If you are covering an ant, confine it to1/3rd of the area, and, use the remaining space to cover the direction in which it's heading.
Applying Rule of Thirds Vertically:
If your snap is covering both water and the sky and if you want to give emphasis to water then it should get 2/3rd portion of the snap. If your snap is covering water, hills and sky then you may want to give 1/3rd portion to each.
Applying Rule of Thirds Horizontally:
If you snap is covering an object (Tree, Person, etc), you may want to keep it in the 'left most' or 'right most' 1/3rd portion of the snap.
2.3). Golden Ratio Rule
Here, you apply Golden Ratio to photography.
What is Golden Ratio?
If area 'A' is divided into two parts (B and C) where one is larger than the other then the golden ratio is achieved if A/B = B/C, which is around 1.618.
When you apply this to photography, you have to to adjust the position of the objects in such a way that they get area in the ratio of "1 : 1.618". The best way is to make use of following golden rectangles.
3). Adding border
3.1). Adding border in Picasa
- Open the snap in picasa
- Go to: Create -> Picture Collage
- Select 'Mosaic' in the drop down box under Settings tab
- Adjust the 'Grid Spacing' to depending on the border size you want. Select the color of the border in 'Background Options'
- Set 'Page Format' to '8.5X11: Letter Paper' to get full snap without cropping [This step may depend on the size of the original snap]
- Select 'Landscape or Portrait' as per your snap
- Click on 'Create Collage' and you are done :)
3.2). Adding borders in GIMP
- Open the snap in GIMP
- Filters -> Decor -> Add border
- Specify the values : x-size, y-size, color
- Click OK
4). Add custom watermark (copyright text) to your images.
There are lot of tools available to do batch watermarking.
Following link provides you the script which can be integrated with GIMP. With this, you can do watermarking at batch level or individual snap level.
If you are looking for other ways to watermark, just read the following links:
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