Simple photo adjustment program

[mike-uswest]

In the past, maybe a computer or two ago, when I put some digital photos on my computer, with a click of the mouse I could adjust the contrast, exposure, or whatever to save a picture that was not quite up to par. Nothing fancy, or difficult, but make them so you could make out who was in them. My computer now has windows 7 on it, and I find that I no longer have that option. I tried looking for a free simple program to do what I wanted, and am not having much luck. Anyone have any suggestions? I am not a professional photographer and not highly computer savvy, but I would appreciate some help.

Mike

[joebedford]

I use Picasa but I don't where you can download it as Google has discontinued support.

I use Fotosizer to resize and resample.

I use Paint for cropping.

[magicbus]

Tom_M wrote:
I use Paint.net. It's free.

Download it here: http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

X2. I use this for all sorts of photo shopping. Free with very powerful features that even I can use. :C

Dave

[Chuck_thehammer]

ncscz wrote:
2 very good ones for Windows --
Irfanview
Or
Faststone

Both are easy to use. I use Faststone mostly because I like its thumbnail viewer better.

Faststone for me. it must be easy if I can use it.

[Gdetrailer]

coolmom42 wrote:
If you have access to Microsoft Office, MSWord has a surprising amount of photo editing options.

Windows 10 has ditched the old Picture Manager, which was very handy.

MS Office Picture editor while it can make some basic adjustments with brightness, contrast, color it really leaves a lot to be desired.. In other words, it doesn't work all that well.

Much better results can be achieved with a standalone picture editor..

Lots of free options available.. but honestly hands down paid standalone versions often will result in far better pictures..

I have a pretty old version of Photoshop Elements.. It has some very nice fully automatic brightness/contrast and color correction features which tend to work extremely well..

Photoshop Elements does require one to "poke" and "play" around to learn but it may actually be easier and faster as long as the automatic correction can correct it the first shot.

I often only have to apply the automatic correction once and be satisfied at the results.. Sometimes I end up having to make a few minor corrections but not often.

I have been able to bring back extremely badly exposed family slides that I scanned into the computer to the point they are nearly perfect.. Yeah, it takes some fiddling but depending on the subject matter it may be worth it..

[SCVJeff]

MrWizard wrote:
IrfanView

x2 !
It's amazing to me that Mac doesn't have anything close

[AdirondackJack]

"PhotoScape" is a program available free online and you can do a great deal with it.

[MrWizard]

IrfanView

[coolmom42]

If you have access to Microsoft Office, MSWord has a surprising amount of photo editing options.

Windows 10 has ditched the old Picture Manager, which was very handy.

[Tom_M1]

I use Paint.net. It's free.

Download it here: http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

[arush19]

I use Google's Photos (used to be called Picasa). It's free and simple to use and it does the simple mods you're looking for. There's also free optional photo storage that will back up your cell phone pictures automatically.

[RoyB]

I have Microsoft OFFICE ver 2007 on my WIN10 and it has a photo program called MICROSOFT OFFICE PICTURE MANAGER that does real well for the basics touchups... The one feature I use the most is called AUTO CORRECT which sets the colors for you in one step (most of the time)...

This is the one I use to make the photos smaller like using in your signature file etc... The one trick is when modifing phpotos never save under the original filename. Change the to add maybe 001 etc... Usually my photos are very big size when downloaded and you can come down in size but you can't go up in size so it best to keep the original one saved somewhere and just make modified copied of it as needed...

Like said it is a very basics touchup program that works very good for me...

Roy Ken

[Gdetrailer]

mike-uswest wrote:
In the past, maybe a computer or two ago, when I put some digital photos on my computer, with a click of the mouse I could adjust the contrast, exposure, or whatever to save a picture that was not quite up to par. Nothing fancy, or difficult, but make them so you could make out who was in them. My computer now has windows 7 on it, and I find that I no longer have that option. I tried looking for a free simple program to do what I wanted, and am not having much luck. Anyone have any suggestions? I am not a professional photographer and not highly computer savvy, but I would appreciate some help.

Mike

Check out GIMP

Used it a few times, it IS FREE, kind of like a cross between basics of MS Paint (which you SHOULD have) and Photoshop (More advanced)..

They do have a manual that can be downloaded from their website..

[ncscz]

2 very good ones for Windows --
Irfanview
Or
Faststone

Both are easy to use. I use Faststone mostly because I like its thumbnail viewer better.