Business Basics for Today’s Writer—Working with Photos and Images

Today’s writer has to be savvy when it comes to blogging and working online. One of the tools we need to have is the ability tow resize photos and upload them to the Internet.

Resizing photo’s is important because different platforms have different file size requirements. I’ve already given you the information you need to Resize a Photo. 

It’s also important to know how to crop photos that you may download from different image sites. I know that a lot of sites have standard dimensions for images and this can leave an odd white space around the photo and throw off the formatting of your blog.

Here is an image I downloaded from Microsoft Clip Art before I cropped it on the left, and then after I cropped it. You can see the before picture has that odd white band on each side of the image. Since the background of my blog is white, it won't show up as a color, but it will throw off the spacing and formatting of my blog unless I crop it.

The easiest way to crop an image is to load it into a photo program. For Mac users, like me, iPhoto is the tool to use. Windows also comes with a photo editor. Whichever one you use, the directions are the same.

1. Upload your image.
2. Crop the image so that no white space shows around the actual image.
3. Save the new image to your computer.

Sometimes it’s necessary to add words to a photo and there are some fun programs that can help you do that. I love playing with photos and the effects you can get with some of the easy programs out there.

My favorite general program is PicMonkey. There is a free version, as well as a paid one. Here’s how I played with a picture I took. The picture below is the untouched picture.

The picture below is the same one, but with one of the effects I added, called Cinerama.

Below is the same picture, with another effect, Lomo.

With PicMonkey, you can also resize photos and add text on top of the image. See the words I added to the image below.

As you can tell, playing with images can be habit forming!

If you have an iPad or an iPhone, the fun can continue almost into infinity. There are literally thousands of apps that allow you to manipulate images. My very favorite is called A+ Signature. It's the program I used to manipulate the cover photo on my Facebook Page, Edie Melson, Author. It actually allows you to write across a photo. 

What questions do you have about working with images? What fun apps and programs do use? Share and we'll learn from each other!

Don't forget to join the conversation
Blessings,
Edie