myPhotoEdit
The image editor for all and sundry
Table of
contents
Thank you for working with
myPhotoEdit!
I crafted myPhotoEdit to have a
quick and easy-to-use image editing application for everyday
use. You don’t have to be a professional image editor to use
it. Noboby needs Photoshop for most of the tasks let alone
its speed.
For example with myPhotoEdit
you can edit, resize and save an image for a blog entry or a
presentation with just a few clicks and in a very short time.
If you want to you can polish your image with world-class
effects. Effects, that would either take a lot of time doing
it with Photoshop or a lot of money to buy specialized
plug-ins.
The very best of myPhotoEdit is
that it is foolproof to use. Whoever worked with another
image editing application, feels at home from the start and
anyone else needs less than three minutes to come up with
perfect results. I promise.
Inside this brief introduction
you find basics on how to use this application and its most
important features.
I’ve not written myPhotoEdit to
have another Photoshop or Pixelmator wannabe clone. I had the
other 99 percent of our daily image editing tasks in mind.
Like enhancing, cropping and exporting a picture for a weblog
entry, an article or a presentation and how this basic and
time consuming tasks could be improved and
simplified…
FAST. FASTER.
MYPHOTOEDIT
First of all - speed matters.
In the time Photoshop starts, you’ve already enhanced,
cropped and saved one or two images with myPhotoEdit.
myPhotoEdit makes it truly easy and speedy for everyone to
edit an image. It’s features range from basic and effective
pimp-up to high-class filters for sophisticated
stuff.
SIMPLE. SIMPLER.
MYPHOTOEDIT
Second - those tasks need to be
as easy to perform as possible. myPhotoEdit is especially
made to be flexible, very speedy and clear while doing common
editing.
YET PERFECT
RESULTS
And third - only because
editing becomes a no-brainer with myPhotoEdit, this doesn't
mean the results are ordinary. Quiet the opposite is true.
With myPhotoEdit everyone can come up with world-class
results in a blink. Nobody has to use underdone or very
limited tools, just because they pretend to be easy to use -
that’s because myPhotoEdit is here!
myPhotoEdit runs on Mac OS X
10.6.3 or higher (Snow Leopard). In runs on Intel Macs
only.
The better you graphics card,
the faster myPhotoEdit polishes your image or applies a
filter.
This is due to the fact that a
fast graphics card handles all the calculations. The
technology used is called Core Image.
- The better the original image
the better the edited result
- Always start with the more
general tasks (exposure, color, etc.)
- Less is more! Every editing
costs quality – beyond doubt
- Never ever (!) sharpen an
image as the first step. Sharpening is always the very last
step
- The next to last step is
adjusting the size (downsize)
- In case you have to rotate an
image (adjusting the horizon): do it as one of the last
steps
- To be able to judge your
work, you have to look at it in full-size
- The experience of color
depends directly on the ambient light.
- Meaning, you must not edit an
image while the sun shines directly on the
screen!
- The best background color to
judge an image is a neutral gray
- If possible, calibrate the
screen
- myPhotoEdit uses by default
the screen profile
- Use "Quick Save" (Save for
Web) for resized/compressed images
- Use "Save As …" for your
high-class images
- The better the graphics card
of your Mac, the faster myPhotoEdit works
- The smaller the window, the
faster edited images are displayed
- Image editing is about fun in
first place - so just play around and have fun!
You can open almost any
’important’ file format like JPEG, TIFF or PNG files, as well
as icons, Photoshop or PDF files. myPhotoEdit is written and
designed to edit images for the web, articles and
presentations or the digital photo album in first place.
Please keep in mind that myPhotoEdit is with intentional
neither a document-based nor a layer-based
application.
RAW IMAGE FORMAT
myPhotoEdit processes almost
any RAW Image Format on the market and I’m regularly checking
and updating the application if needed.
BACKUP
I guess, each of us has already
accidentally destroyed one of the best images we ever shot,
by overwriting the original with an edited one. Thus
myPhotoEdit can automatically create a backup copy of each
opened image. You can enable this feature in the
Preferences.
RECENT IMAGES
Many Mac applications have a
'Recent Documents' menu item - but I don’t know how you can
manage this, DSC_2615 tells me nothing. Besides the fact that
this menu item does not tell you if the image was opened or
saved. That's why I've written my own solution for
myPhotoEdit…
First: Unlike most image
editing applications myPhotoEdit isn’t a document-based.
There is only one image and one view at the same time.
Thereby things get easier, clearer and most of all much
faster.
The main view (and in fact
anything else, too) is crafted with ease-of-use and clarity
in mind.
1.
Toolbar
- The Toolbar is only available
at the moment you open an image
- Trust me, you only need the
few tools it provides to do all your editing
- You find more information
regarding the Toolbar in the next chapter
2.
Image-View
- Drop any image on this
view
- You can zoom-in and
zoom-out
- The image adjusts itself to
the size of the image-view
- In the preference you can
define that every image gets first displayed in
full-size
In addition you can define in
the preference that the image-view opens centered and that it
hides when it’s not active.
Background
color
In the preferences you can
define the background color of the image-view. I know that
everyone has its liking. But the best background color to
judge the colors of the image is a neutral gray.
You can customize the toolbar
to fit your needs (Menu > View > Customize
Toolbar…)
Switch
- With this button you switch
between the currently edited version of the image and the
original image
- Since you always work with a
copy of the original image all the tools are disabled while
displaying the original image
> keyboard short cut:
cmd+1/cmd+2
Rotate
- You can rotate an image
clockwise or counter-clockwise
- In the menu (Adjustments) you
find an option to mirror the image
- In case you just want to
rotate an image a few degrees use the special
‘rotation-tool’
> keyboard short cut:
shift+cmd+L/shift+cmd+R
Hint: Rotating an image
influences the quality of the image
Editing and selection
tools
Hand tool (for
moving)
- With that tool you can move
the image inside the image-view to put a certain part into
focus
Hint: Moving does not affect the quality
> keyboard short cut:
H
Marquee / Crop
tool
- Use this tool to select a
certain part of the image
- With the Return-key you confirm
the selection and the image will be trimmed to the
selection
> keyboard short cut:
M
Quick-Edit
- Use it to open the Quick-Edit
panel
- With these tools you can
adjust the most important parameters in one single
place
- These tools are best meant
for very quick (and dirty) editing
- You find more detailed
information in the chapter ‘Quick-Edit Tools’
> keyboard short cut:
cmd+E
Filter
- Image tools is a group of
high-class filters
- You can use different filter
alone or in combination with other filters
- Feel free to use each filter
as you like. Don’t care about its description
- Not every filter should
proper for every image
- Please keep in mind that some
filters are actually a combination of up to 20 single steps –
that might take some time
- You can undo every filter
action with ‘discard’
- In some cases it is useful to
first edit an image (color, contrast, etc.) and then apply a
filter
- You find an overview of all
filters in the chapter ‘Image Tools’
> keyboard short cut:
shift+cmd+E
Resize
- One of the most common tasks
is to edit the image size – with myPhotoEdit this becomes a
no-brainer
- You can choose one of the
predefined sizes (great for blogger) or set the size
manually
- You can define your own
predefined sizes in the preferences
- myPhotoEdit takes care of the
aspect ratio – You don’t have to calculate it yourself or
fear skewed images
- Since decreased images tent
to be fuzzy you can apply a bit of sharpening while
decreasing it
- You find more detailed
information in the chapter ‘Changing the image
size’
> keyboard short cut:
option+cmd+I
Instead of using the Toolbar or
shortcuts - you can also use the Inspector to access the most
important tools and actions.
> keyboard short cut:
I
The Quick Edit panel is
designed to fast and directly edit the image without preview
and only apply minor adjustments to avoid undo-orgies. If
speed is all that matters for the current editing, you should
use this tools. If you’ve got a little bit more time, I
recommend to use the 'Adjustments' menu and its advanced
tools or you can use the 'Enhance' panel - there you will
have previews, presets if you’ve to edit a bulk of images and
more versatile options.
Unlike a normal editing tool
that is specialized on one single task like lighting, color
or sharpness, a Quick tool is a combination of several tools.
Quick Edit tools aren’t made for larger editing tasks like
turning some red into blue or applying sunshine at
night.
Quick Edit tools are best for
small tasks. Like a bit of sharpening, a bit more contrast or
a bit more color. The advantage of using them is the speed of
editing. And this is exactly what is needed most of the time:
Some minor changed to edit an image for a blog entry. For
every other task I strongly advocate to use the tools from
the menu ‘Adjustment’.
1. Exposure – Use it to correct
over-/ underexposed images
2. Contrast – Use it to apply
more vigor or correct the exposure
3. Color – Adjust the color
intensiveness
4. Brightness – Applied
together with contrast enhances images
5. Tint – Use it to correct
color fog or flash
6. Sharpen – Use it to sharpen
reduced fuzzy images
AUTO ENHANCEMENT
TOOLS
While creating and writing
myPhotoEdit, I had our daily image editing tasks in mind.
Often we simply need to just enhance, resize and export an
image for the web, an article or a presentation. That’s why
I’ve written some actions (Auto Boost, Auto Levels and Auto
Enhance) that perform a bunch of image enhancements and
editing tasks with a single click. You may not want to use
them while editing your best photos/memories - but for a
quick-and-dirty job they work very well.
With the Edit tools you have
every important editing option in one place, without working
directly with the original image. That means you can try
everything in a preview and once you are happy with the
result you apply the editing to the original
image.
The Edit tools take the place
of the Quick Edit tools for everyone using Leopard
(10.5.8).
1. Zoom
2. Preview
3. Editing tools /
slider
a. Exposure – Use it to
correct over-/ underexposed images
b. Contrast – Use it to apply
more vigor or correct the exposure
c. Color – Adjust the color
intensiveness
d. Brightness – Applied
together with contrast enhances images
e. Tint – Use it to correct
color fog or flash
f. Sharpen – Use it to sharpen
reduced fuzzy images
4. Apply editing
5. Undo editing
6. Save/Load Preset
The menu ‘Adjustments’ contains
specialized tools for all kinds of tasks. Use them to
fine-tune your images. In contrast to the Quick Edit tools
you work here with a preview (you can play around and undo
everything) and just one specialist tool at a
time.
In the next chapter ‘Example
Adjustment Tool’ you find the basic way of dealing with these
tool. They all work the same way.
By the way: I am going to
provide some tutorials (Image
Editing for Dummies)
which describe the most important and common tasks of image
editing by example. Putting it in this manual would go too
far.
You can select every single
editing tool by using the menu (> Menu > Adjustments
>*).
All adjustment tools (with own
window) work within their views the same way.
1. Zoom
- The selection is for all
adjustment tools
- While zooming the cursor
takes the hand-shape
2. Preview
- The image is adjusted to fit
into the view size
- The size of the view is
saved
3.Editing tool /
slider
- Every slider is made for the
corresponding tool and has clear label
4. Apply editing
- Once you are satisfied with
the editing you can apply it to the original
image.
5. Undo editing
- The sliders and the preview
image will be reset.
6. Save/Load
preset
If you need to edit a series of
images and want them to have the same look and feel, you can
simply save you current settings as a preset and just load
them on the next image.
myPhotoEdit has a collection
with over 70 of high-class filters for all kinds of tasks
build right in. These filters range from creating perfect
black … white images, over generating a gorgeous 'Bleach
Bypass' effect, to simulate complex cross processing
filters.
PLEASE NOTICE!
Some of these sophisticated
filters are a combination of up to 20 single filters and
actions steps - thus applying them to large images of course
needs some time and resources to compute - no matter how fast
your Mac is. Before working with those filters, I strongly
advise to do the basic image editing tasks (like exposure,
color correction etc.) first. Please keep in mind, that
resizing and sharpening an image are always the very last two
steps.
IMPORTANT!
Of course not every filter
works well with every image. Just play a little bit with
them. You can undo every step with a single click or
keystroke. It does not make sense at all for example, to
apply a high class 'Cross Processed' filter to an already
pixelated, a dozen times downsized and re-used image from the
internet and to expect the perfect result. The better the
original image, the better the final result. Every image
manipulation costs quality – beyond doubt!
HDR, LOMO, HOLGA -
WHAT?
It does not matter if those
names sound like geek talk to you. Image editing is about fun
in the first place - so go ahead and just try them all and of
course you will find more information about them in the
manual…
1. Select the tool
category
I – Contains a set of filters
for common tasks like snapshot, portrait and
landscape.
II - This is a set of filters
to imitate a certain appearance (HDR, Bleach Bypass
etc.)
|II - This is a filter set of
extraordinary stuff like Lomo camera or to imitate a very old
image
IV - This is an additional
filter set to imitate different film/processing
styles
2. Select a
filter
- Every tool set is made of
multiple filters
- Every filter comes with three
variations
- You are free to combine
filters
3. Apply a
filter
The resize function is designed
to (very) fast resize images. While creating this function I
had our daily image editing tasks in mind. We often need the
same sizes for weblog entries, articles or presentation
again. That’s why myPhotoEdit offers re-usable presets you
can edit in the preferences. Thus you don’t have to remember
and type them again and again…
PLEASE NOTICE!
myPhotoEdit will always
constrain the proportions and automatically compute the
companion value.
INTERPOLATION
Interpolation is the way the
image is resampled while resized. In most cases myPhotoEdit
will do the right thing if 'Default' is selected - but
sometimes you may need smoother gradients (High) or harder
edges (None).
AUTOMATICALLY
SHARPEN
Again, I was thinking of our
'normal' workflow while writing myPhotoEdit - and often we
need to sharpen an image a little bit after downsizing it. So
why not perform both tasks in one step. Of course you should
not enable this when working on your best photos - but for a
weblog entry or a presentation, this will save some time in
addition…
The Marquee tool is used for
two tasks - to apply/create a selection and to crop the
image.
SELECTION
You can use this tool to apply
a free-hand selection. You will see the information about the
selected pixel in the bottom bar of the window. If you need
to apply a fixed selection (e.g. 8.5 x 11) you can use ”Apply
Selection…” instead. You can copy such a selection to
clipboard, paste it into another image, apply a background
image to that selection or just crop the image to that
size.
CROPPING
Once you’ve created a selection
and wish to crop your image to that size, all you’ve to do is
to simply hit return…
If you need to apply a fixed
selection (e.g. 8.5 x 11) you can use ”Apply Selection…”
instead. You can copy such a selection to clipboard, paste it
into another image, apply a background image to that
selection or just crop the image to that size.
myPhotoEdit makes it very easy
to print your best photos/memories. Simply choose the format
and orientation and you're ready to print…
You can think of the history as
an unlimited undo and redo with hint and visual feedback and
no need to hit undo twenty times in a row to finally restore
the desired step. Just select it and double-click the table
or hit return.
PLEASE NOTICE!
The history steps are also
accessible by menu and the same shortcuts Photoshop uses -
but in contrast to Photoshop you can still access all history
steps, even when you've already restored and edited an
earlier one, which means: you really have unlimited undo and
redo. Of course this functions needs temporary disk space and
will stop working when there is no more free space
available.
myPhotoEdit comes with two ways
to save an image.
(1) ‘Quick Save’ is meant to
save an image quickly at a predefined location (probably the
Desktop) with a predefined format and compression. The
predefinitions are stored and you can apply them with one
click or keyboard-shortcut.
Quick Save should not be used
for high quality images. Use (2) ‘Save As…’
instead.
1. Choose the
format
- JEPG is the best combination
of quality and file size
- PNG is for very good quality
and it includes transparency. It’s best for sreenshots and
icons ( greater size)
2. Quality / compression (JEPG
only)
- the lower the quality the
smaller the file size and the more you see each
pixel
3. Overwrite file without
prompt
- Made with speed in mind. Yet
it is easy to overwrite an image
unintentionally.
4. Predefined path
- The preselected path is
stored and you don’t need to set it time and time
again.
5. Title
- Per default the title of the
original image is used. In case you want to use the image on
the web consider renaming it.
Hint: Don’t use any umlaut or
special characters for images used on the web.
6. Save
