Photo editing help please

silverbeetle

Hi I need some advice regarding photo editing. I need to take photos to sell items of jewellery online.

I have taken good photos but need to make the background completely white & to remove all shadows to make the image look professional.

Please could someone recommend any easy to use & hopefully cheap (or free) program/software to do this?

I would be grateful for any help or advice.

Many thanks

debitcardmayhem

The GIMP or possibly Picasa there are more which are also free..

diable

Decent lighting and a white background is all you need.

bengalknights

picasa would be my recomendation

splodger_seedswapper

i use photoplus (from serif) it's not a free to use one (but they can be cheap) don't know if they do trials for their older versions

if you only have a few pics to edit - go for a freebie - if you've got loads or will need to use quite often - a full photo edit software pack might be more useful

fishybusiness

Decent lighting and a white background is all you need.

That is your best way. Spend a bit of time working out how to take good pictures and you'll not need to edit them. Much quicker and less time consuming.

victorZ

I suggest you look for photo editor on Google or you could install Adobe Photoshop. It can help you with photo editing.

macman

I assume you mean Photoshop Elements?
Photoshop woud be complete overkill for a simple clean up job like this.

Johnhackett151

Never try to edit pictures which are blurry because it's very hard to fix and it's time wasting. You have to be a master at photoshop to fix it! Trust me I tried

david39

I agree that taking a good original photo is far easier and more time saving than manipulation in a photo editor.

I suggest you obtain a large sheet of white, or cream paper. The back of a length of wallpaper would be ideal.

Lay it flat and then prop the far end of it up so that the paper forms a flat, plain base curving upwards into a plain backdrop - this will mean that there is no line or crease between the base and the background.

Use this, without flash, outside on a fairly bright, but dull, day with no sunshine. You will get good all-round lighting and will avoid the shadows and high contrast that flash photography produces.

silverbeetle

Many thanks for all help and suggestions. Will give them a try :T