Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Enhancements
Adjust brightness and contrast. Most amateur photographs need light adjustment to bump up the image. Use an image editor or image viewer to increase or decrease the brightness, gamma and contrast of the digital picture. Just about all viewers and editors have this basic feature. Remember to save your changes to the file or a copy of the same.
Change the black and white to a monochrome color. A popular choice is the sepia tone, which gives pictures the look of old-fashioned photographs. Some image editors have a specific sepia feature. In others, look for a hue/saturation feature. Change the hue to a brown shade or whatever color you prefer to create the monochrome. This is called "toning" in photography.
Download a frame and insert the photo inside it. Framing the photo adds visual interest especially to a black and white image. You can download frames from websites such as Free-Photo-Frames. Open the frame in an image editor that supports "masks" and "layers." Select the empty space inside the frame and delete it and then copy and paste the photo and place it in a layer beneath the frame. Move and resize the photo to fit it within the frame as you like.
Add special effects to the photos. You can upload and edit digital photos for free at websites like HP Creative Studio or Loonapix. These sites let you add borders and various special effects to pictures to make them more attractive. Visit each website, browse your computer and upload the black and white photo. Select a frame or effect and apply it to the image.
Create a negative. Some pictures make interesting imagery when they are changed to negatives. Computer software can transform an existing digital photo into a negative by reversing its colors. Save a copy of the original photo if you decide to make use the negative effect.
Color a specific area in the picture using an advanced image editor like GIMP or Photoshop. Convert the picture to an RGB color file first. Use a selection tool such as a rectangle, lasso or magic wand to select the area you wish to color. Pick a fill or "bucket" coloring tool, reduce its opacity and fill the selected area. The chosen color will appear as an overlay on the original photo without erasing it.
Combine with a colored photo. Black and white photos make interesting collages when combined with colored pictures. Try using the black and white photo as the background image. Insert one to three colored photos at a smaller size into the canvas. You will need an advanced image editor like Photoshop that supports layers for this type of enhancement.
Erase the background. Any paint program or image editor will let you either erase the background or paint over it with white or any color you choose. For example, Windows' Paint application has eraser and brush tools. Erase the background when you want the foreground to stand out.
Image Editors
Download and install GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program. Open the black and white digital photo from the "File" menu. Click "Image" and click "RGB" as the color mode. Choose a tool from the "Tools" menu or edit colors with the "Colors" menu.
Run Windows Live Photo Gallery from the "Start" menu in Windows, or download and install the Windows Live Essentials suite if you do not have it installed. Click a photo in the photo library and click "Fix" or "Fine Tune" to enter the editing screen. Choose from the options on the right to enhance the black and white photo.
Run Paint from the "Accessories" folder in Windows. Choose a tool from the "Colors," "Tools" and "Shapes" group to add various enhancements to the photo. Your version of Paint may look different if you run an older system like Windows XP.