Editing Photos

I got into a discussion with some of the ladies at the crop on Saturday about how I make my photos lighter. It all started because the lady opposite me had snowy pictures and her snow looked somewhat grey. Anyway I said to her that I use Microsoft Office Picture Manager to lighten my photos. It is really easy and seems to work on most photos. I usually use it when I am photographing cards or layouts to make the colour more true. I thought I would share how I do it here in case it can help anyone else. The software was on my pc so I would think most people have it. So here is what I do...

1. In Windows Explorer click on the file you want to open (only click once)
2. Right click and you should have a drop down menu
3. About half way down it says 'Open With'
4. If you move the mouse over this it will then open another drop down menu
5. On my menu the second item down is Microsoft Office Picture Manager
6. Select this and it will open the photo you have selected.
7. From the menus at the top left click 'picture' and then 'colour' from the menu that drops down
8. On the right there is now a box which says enhance colour. Click on this box and then click on anything in your photo that is white
9. Your computer will work out how all the other colours should look adjusting the colour that should be white back to white.
10. See below for a before and after shot. Note the piece of paper on the left. If I don't have anything white in my photo I will put a piece of paper in shot for my white and then crop it out when I edit my photo. The paper goes from grey to white and the rest of the photo is brightened up too.

I hope this can help some of you. Let me know if it does and also if you don't understand anything!