word on the street is that picnik is going away (at least the free version) so i have a big treat for you all today, because Brooke is here to introduce an alternative free photo editing software–PHOTOSCAPE.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hi Everyone! I’m Brooke- a writer, mother, student, military wife, photog wannabe, and Jesus Lover. I want to thank Andi for having me today! I blog over at Covered in Grace and would love it if you stopped by. Be sure to check out some of my features: Photography Challenges, Love…on a Tuesday, and Barefoot Passion.

I’m here today to share something called Photoscape with you.

It is this really amazing, free to download, wonderful, fantastic photo-editing software.

You can find it and download it here.

I use it to edit every single photo that you’ll find on Covered in Grace. It has the most features that I’ve found in any free photo-editing software out there and its ease of use is fantastic.Once you download and install it, you’ll open it up and see the home screen.

Four of the most important tools are:

1. Editor- which lets you shop your images individually

2. Batch Editor- which lets you shop groups, or batches, of photos at the same time, with the same edits

3. Page (i.e. collage-maker)- which lets you make amazing, beautiful collages (also good for scrap-booking)

4. Combine- which lets you splice together images

First up…Editor.

This is the feature I find myself using the most.

There is so much to do inside editor.

Once you find the photo you want to edit, I would highly recommend that you re-size your image before doing anything else. It will save you a lot of re-dos later on. Trust me, I found out the hard way. Here, you can adjust your lighting, brightness/contrast, color/hues, and add things like borders, filters, objects (think bling, arrows words, etc.) watermarks (which I’ll show you in “batch editor”), and so much more.

*Helpful Hint* When you’ve taken a photo with less than desirable lighting, just click the little “Backlight” button. You can enhance the image with so little effort this way and totally fake natural light.

Filters!

This is where all the real goodies are! You can add vignetting, textures, fine art filters, noise reduction, Fake-tilt Shift, region out of focus, film effects (one of my favorites, and go-tos) and tons more. Yes, “Filters” is where all the fun is.

And the good thing about it…if you don’t like it, just hit the Undo button.

Next up…Batch Editor.

This is the feature that allows you to do everything that regular editor does, but to groups of photos all at once.

First you’ll need to decide which photos you want to shop. Just drag and drop your images in the batch list.

*Helpful Hint* I have found that it’s easiest to edit batches of photos that have the same orientation, i.e. either all landscape or all portrait-style images. This also helps prevent those pesky re-dos I was talking about earlier.

Once you’ve got your photos looking the way you want them to via filters, brightness, coloring, etc., you might want to add a watermark. I think it’s a good idea. You can use images, logos, or text. Let’s use some text right now.

To add your watermark, you’ll need to click the “Object” tab and check the box on one of the text options. The batch editor gives you 4 different options to create text/watermarks. A nifty little plus about this is that Photoscape saves those “creations” and keeps them loaded in batch editor until you change them again. (It provides the same features for photo-objects.)

So…after you’ve checked that little box, you can type in the text you want to use and then click the tiny little edit button {pictured above}. Once you’re in the text/watermark editor {left} you can change your font, color, orientation, add shadows, outlines and adjust opacity. The opacity function is a good one. I generally use a white font and reduce the opacity as far as the slider will let me.

*Note* when you are in Editor, to add text/watermarks you will need to click the “object tab” (located above the borders) and click the text, or T, button. That will bring up the same text/watermark editor.

Don’t forget to add a border to your images.

My go-to borders are the “Cali” borders {pictured above} and the rounded edges {which you’ll see on most of the images in my blog}.

After you’re done editing, and you like the way all the photos are looking (you can make sure of this by clicking through each photo in the batch list), click the “Convert All” button and save the images all at once. Easy Peasy.

{So…for the sake of keeping this post manage-ably long, I’ll give you a summary of the next two features. Check out the full post on my blog for the how-tos.}

Collages are next!

“Page” is a really useful and fun feature in Photoscape. They are super attractive on your blog, save you upload time and space and give you a little something different to add in when you’re feeling like you’re in a bit of a posting slump. They’re a great way to share all the photos that you want to share. All you have to do is choose your layout and drag and drop your images into place. +plus+ This tool is really great for scrapbooking pages.

Finally….Combine.

I use the combine feature all the time. This one simply splices your photos together. It’s really useful for all the same reasons the page function is useful.

Well…I must stop here. I want to thank Andi again for having me today! It was my pleasure.

If you want to see the rest of the tutorial just CLICK HERE.

I can’t wait to see what yall come up with today, Photo Friday Friends!

~Brooke

 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

thanks to brooke for sharing this info packed post!

i’m intrigued by the “combine” feature!

link up what you are photographing this week.  it can be anything photo-related!

by linking, you give me permission to facebook/tweet about your photo post if it is one of my favorites!

You might also like: