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How do I edit photos?

Windows Live Essentials
Help & How-to

You can use the editing tools in Windows Live Photo Gallery to improve a photo's composition, exposure, detail, color, and more. Not all file types can be edited.

To edit photos

Open Windows Live Photo Gallery by clicking the Start button . In the search box, type Photo Gallery, and then, in the list of results, click Windows Live Photo Gallery.
Select the photo or photos that you want to edit, and then, at the top of the screen, click the Edit tab.
Do one or more of the following:
- To automatically edit a photo or a batch of photos, select the photos you'd like to edit, and then click Auto adjust or one of the other editing options.
- To manually edit photos, double-click a photo to view it in one-up mode, and then click Fine tune.
Note
If you can't edit a photo in Windows Live Photo Gallery, one of the following reasons might be the cause:
- The photo properties attribute is set to Read-only. To change a photo’s read-only property, right-click the photo and select Properties. Under the General tab, in the Attributes group, uncheck Read-only, and then Apply.
- The photo is stored in a read-only location like shared network file, a CD or DVD, or other location where you can’t change its properties. To save a copy of a photo to your computer where you can edit it, double-click the photo, click Edit, click Make a copy, select a file type, choose a location on your computer to save the photo, and then click Save.
- The photo is an unsupported file type. Photo Gallery can't open or edit all photo file types. To save a copy of photo and change it's file type to a format that you can edit, double-click the photo, click Make a copy, select a file type, and then click Save.
- The photo might have been deleted or moved after you selected it for editing. Restore the photo to its original location, and then try to edit the photo again.

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To manually adjust exposure

Double-click a photo to view it in one-up mode, and then click Fine tune.
Do one or more of the following:
- To adjust the brightness, move the Brightness slider.
- To adjust the contrast, move the Contrast slider.
- To adjust shadow detail without affecting midtone or highlight detail, move the Shadows slider.
- To adjust highlight detail without affecting midtone or shadow detail, move the Highlights slider.
- To adjust the photo's white point and black point, under the Histogram, move the white and black arrows.
  
  Note
  As you apply effects to your photo, the histogram shows how your photo's exposure is being adjusted.

To manually adjust color

Double-click a photo to view it in one-up mode, and then click Fine tune.
Click Adjust color.
Do one or more of the following:
- To adjust the tone and make the photo look warmer or cooler, move the Color temperature slider.
- To adjust the color cast, move the Tint slider.
- To adjust the vividness of the colors, move the Saturation slider.

To manually adjust detail

Double-click a photo to view it in one-up mode, and then click Fine tune.
Click Adjust detail.
To adjust your photo's sharpness, use the Sharpen slider.
To reduce image noise, click Analyze, and then use the Reduce noise slider.

To manually straighten a photo

Double-click a photo to view it in one-up mode, and then click Fine tune.
Click Straighten photo. If you want to straighten your photo more, use the slider.

To manually crop a photo

Double-click a photo to view it in one-up mode, and then click Crop.
Do one or more of the following:
- To change the photo's proportions, in the Proportion list, click a proportion.
- To specify a custom photo proportion, in the Proportion list, click Custom, and then drag the corners of the crop frame until the photo has the proportions that you want.
- To resize the crop frame, drag the corners of the crop frame. If you've chosen a standard print size, the crop frame maintains its proportions as it's resized. A custom crop frame can have any width and height. To maintain the proportions of a custom crop frame, hold down the Shift key while you resize the crop frame.
- To change the photo's composition, drag the crop frame to a new position in the photo.
- To rotate the crop frame so that the photo is cropped vertically or horizontally, click Rotate Frame.
Click Crop again to apply your crop.

To manually fix red eye

Double-click a photo to view it in one-up mode, click Fine tune, and then click Red eye.
Drag a box around the eye that you want to correct, and then release the mouse button.
Repeat this step for each eye that you want to correct.

Note

If you can still see red eye after you use the Red eye tool, repeat these steps.

To manually apply a black and white effect

Double-click a photo to view it in one-up mode, and then select the effect you'd like from Effects.

To save your edits

To save the changes to your photo, click Close file and your changes will save automatically.

Note

To remove the changes you've made to a photo, click Undo.

To resize photos

Select the photos you want to resize, and then on the Edit tab, in the Properties group, click Resize.
Click the Select a size list, and then select a size for your photos. For a custom size, in the Maximum dimensions box, enter the maximum width you want your photos to be.
Click Resize and save. To save resized photos to another location, click Browse, and then select an existing folder to save your resized photo in.

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