Image editing for referral

Created 2017.

Many images are adequate as they are.  Others are better edited.  

• Save a duplicate of the original as back up.
• Consider how to improve the image. 

Editing options available depend on your platform and available software.

Preview for Mac

On a Mac computer, by default, clicking on an image opens up Preview.

Tools / Show Inspector

• Shows image information
• Shows file information
• Add keywords

Preview image editing options are:

Tools / Adjust colour

• Auto Levels are usually best
• Exposure and contrast may be useful if you didn’t adjust these on the camera 

Tools / Annotate

• This is used for pointing out something of interest

To crop the image, eg to place subject in centre of image or shrink background

• Tools / Rectangular selection
• Drag the rectangle to select part of the image
• Tools / Crop (or ⌘K)

After you have completed editing, save a resized version that has a width between 1200 and 2400 px, as a high-quality JPG file to be used for your referral.

Tools / Adjust Size

• Check Scale proportionally and resample image
• Type in the desired width in pixels
• Resolution is 72 pixels/itch for viewing on screen

PictureViewer and Paint on PC

Clicking on an image on a PC opens Windows PictureViewer by default.
Click on the edit icon. This opens the image in Paint by default.
Explore editing options.

• My version of Paint does not allowing zooming out below 100%.
• Image / Attributes is used to resize the image.

There are many better and free image editing programs available for download.