How to Edit Photos on My Computer

By Michelle Mista

Photo editing software can help you bring the best out of your photographs.
i camera image by Christopher Meder from Fotolia.com

Whether you take professional-grade photographs with a high-grade digital camera or simple snapshots of your friends and relatives with a point-and-shoot camera, photo editing software is an essential accessory. It allows you to perform tasks like correcting red eye, cropping photos and adding text. Some software even allows you to make digital photo albums to share with your loved ones. Photo editing software for the casual home user is easy to install and use and can help make even the simplest snapshot look stunning.

Open the photo editing software of your choice on your computer. Adobe Photoshop Elements is a popular commercial photo editor, aimed at the home consumer. It is available for both Windows and Mac. Paint.NET is a popular, free, Windows-only alternative to Adobe Photoshop Elements. GIMP is an open source photo editor that is free to download, and is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux.

Open the photo that you want to edit on your computer. On most photo editing software, this is done by going to File and Open and navigating to the folder that contains the photo that you would like to edit.

Select the a tool to begin editing your photograph. Editing tools vary between photo editing software, but most will include tools to perform basic photo editing such as cropping and color correction.

Save your edits on your photograph. On most photo editing software, this can be done by going to File and Save or pressing "Ctrl" and "S" (command-S on a Mac) on the keyboard.

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