How to Modify Your Own Photograph

Photo Editing Software

• 1

  Choose a software to edit your photo. There are many brands and versions available for free and for pay. Some of the best include Adobe Photoshop, a piece of software for purchase, and Gimp, a piece of software for free download. Both of these software choices offer many tools for photo modification. As well, many computers come preinstalled with photo manipulation software, and most printers have software for photo manipulation.

• 2

  Import your photo onto your computer so that you may open it with your photo editing software. You can import a photo from your digital camera or by downloading from the Internet. For older photos, you can scan them into your computer and then open them with your photo editing software.

• 3

  Decide how you would like to modify your photos. Many software choices offer the basics of red eye reduction, cropping, rotating or changing a color photo to black and white or vice versa. There are also many more advanced effects available, such as giving digital photos a film grain, changing contrast or changing saturation. The best way to find out which features are available is to play around with all the different manipulation features available.

Scrapbooking

• 4

  Select the photos that you want to scrapbook. Choose photos based on a unified theme. This can include person, holiday, event or location.

• 5

  Line up the supplies that you want to use, along with the photos you have chosen. There are many supplies available to make your scrapbook page. These supplies include colored papers (choose specialized acid-free scrapbook paper so that it does not damage your photos), stickers or cut-outs to decorate your pages.

• 6

  Cut out your pictures in certain shapes and sizes that will flow well with your selected supplies. For example, if you are making a Christmas themed page consider cutting one of your pictures to look like a Christmas tree.

• 7

  Complete the page with your theme in mind. For a Christmas page, use Christmas colored paper and Christmas themed stickers and cut-outs to make your page complete. Though scrapbooking will not necessarily modify your photos, it will change them in a way to draw attention to them.

Negative Manipulation With Dye

• 8

  Modify the negative by applying liquid dyes to either the base or emulsion side of the negative. Red, cyan and yellow dyes are all available for use in modifying photos.

• 9

  Utilize other dye combinations, such as red-yellow, to achieve desired color augmentation.

• 10

  Allow the dye to dry, and check to see whether the desired color augmentation is achieved. If needed, add more dye and again wait for the dye to dry to check results.

Negative Manipulation With Pencils

• 11

  Sharpen your pencils, both colored and black graphite, using a pencil sharpener followed by a razor blade or knife to make the tips into a fine point.

• 12

  Apply a retouching fluid to the emulsion side of the negative so that the pencils may be applied successfully to the negative. If you are looking to manipulate a large area of the photo, add the retouching fluid to the base side of the photo as well.

• 13

  Press down with the pencil and move it in slight circles. Make sure to not moisten the tip of the pencils you are using. Keep in mind that the use of black pencils will remove colored pencil work if used to draw over the colored pencils.