http://www.techradar.com/pro/linux May 2019 LXF249 65
Organise photos TuTorials
Adjustexposure
TheExposureslidercreatesthe
effectofchangingaphoto’sexposuretime
- pushthesliderrighttolightenan
underexposedphoto,orlefttodarkenit.
TheContrastsliderhelpscounterwashed-
outphotos(pushright)ornarrowtherange
betweendarkandlight(pushleft).
Tweakcolourbalance
Photolookswashedout?Try
pushingtheSaturationsliderrighttoinject
morecolour.Dragitallthewayleftto
removethecoloursoitbecomesgreyscale.
Ifyourcamerahasincorrectwhitebalance
settings,useTinttocorrectthembyadding
morered(moveitleft)orgreen(right).Additionaladjustments
UsetheTemperatureslidertomake
cold-lookingphotoswarmer(orviceversa).
TheShadowssliderisusefulforbringing
outdetailhiddenindarkareasoftheimage,
whiletheHighlightssliderenablesyouto
reducethenumberofbrightareas.Use
ShadowsandHighlightstogether.1 2 3
perForMMaNuallIgHtINg aNDColouraDjuStMeNtS
To edit a photo in Shotwell, double-click it and you’ll
see the controls you need at the bottom of the screen.
Most are self-explanatory – Rotate and Crop, for
example – while clicking Enhance enables Shotwell
to perform automatic adjustments that can quickly
improve a photo’s lighting or colour balance. All
changes can be undone via the Edit menu.
You’ll also notice three other options, which require
a little more explanation. If you’ve scanned something
in – an old photo or document, for example – chances
are it’s slightly skewed. Click Straighten to overlay a
grid on your photo, then either use the Angle slider to
perform adjustments or click and drag the cursor in a
line over the photo to realign it along that line’s angle.
Once done, the photo will update automatically, but
until you click Straighten it won’t actually apply the
change; click Cancel to void it, or Reset to start again.
The Red-eye button’s purpose is obvious. First, zoom
into the photo so your subject’s devilish eyes are
magnified, then click Red-eye. A small circle appears in
the centre of the photo: start by positioning it over the
first eye and using the Size slider to resize it. When it
has surrounded the red portion of the eye, click Apply
and move on to the next eye.
The final option is the most powerful: if you don’t feel
that Shotwell’s Enhance button has done enough to fix
your photo’s poor lighting or colour, click Adjust
instead. A pop-up window appears, displaying a
histogram of the current image. You’ll see so-called
‘Intensity Threshold’ markers appear at either end of it.
These change the lightness of the brightest white and
the darkness of the darkest black, and are particularly
good at correcting washed-out images.
There are also seven sliders you can adjust for
additional corrections, including colour issues. The
step-by-step guide below walks through these in more
detail. It’s worth noting that the automatic Enhance
button tweaks the Intensity Threshold markers along
with the Shadows/Highlights sliders, so if you’re not
100 per cent happy with its results, leave Enhance
clicked and then focus your tweaks on these tools.Share and publish
Shotwell also offers various ways in which you can
share your photos with others. The simplest is via
email: simply right-click a photo and choose Send To...
You’ll see similar options to those offered when
exporting the photo, but we’d recommend choosing
JPEG for starters, then setting a scaling constraint –
typically ‘Longest edge’ – in pixels before clicking OK,
at which point the photo will be sent to your email
application in the form of an attachment.
There are also several options for publishing your
photos online: choose File > Publish or press Ctrl+Shift
+P. By default there are options to publish to Flickr,
Google Picasa Web Albums and Piwigo for photos, and
YouTube for videos. Gallery3 and Tumblr options are
also available, but only after enabling the plug-ins – see
the box (on page 64) for more about those.BeCoMeBetter orgaNISeD Subscribe now at http://bit.ly/LinuxFormat
Flickr is one of
the few publishing
options offered
by Shotwell right
now – sadly
(thankfully?–Ed),
Facebook is no
longer supported.If Shotwell
appearsto
freezeafter
switchingon
yourcamera,
switchoffthe
cameraand
closeShotwell.
openFiles,
thenswitchthe
cameraback
on.aftera short
pauseit should
appear– click
toopenit and
you’llseean
optiontoopen
it inShotwell–
clickthis
andit should
nowfunction.