Using Good Photos to Get More Visitors

One of the first things I noticed on Pinterest is that pins with bright clear pictures are significantly more likely to be repinned than ones with darker or ‘muddier’ pictures. Not everyone has the money or inclination to buy an expensive camera, but you can work on a picture after you put it on your computer to make it look brighter and attract more attention.

Photoshop is the industry standard and if you have it or can afford to buy it, I recommend it. However, it is also quite expensive making it a poor choice for many people. Luckily there are free alternates including IrfanView and GIMP the latter of which is similar to Photoshop 7.

Improving Pictures with IrfanView

Go to Image -> Color Corrections. Increase contrast by a lot and saturation by a little. I used 60 for contrast and 10 for saturation and increased Gamma to 1.1, but your adjustments will vary depending on the picture.

Improvements with Infanview

Besides the example listed below IrfanView has an auto correction option (under image) and a limited effects browser. However, you can ‘load’ some Photoshop effects into the browser, thus, giving you a lot more options. The effects that come with the program include Sepia, oil paint, blur, sharpen, rock, metallic and metallic gold.

There are a number of excellent Photoshop filters that are free downloads.

Check Your Settings When You Save

IrfanView allows you to adjust the quality of the picture when you save it. Slide the slider over to “Good”. While saving pictures at the low end will make the images smaller the result is far poorer quality.

Taking pictures with a Mobile Phone

If you take pictures with your mobile phone there are a number of good apps for improving pictures. Most of the good ones cost $1-$4, but there are a few decent ones for free. If you decide to pay it is still much cheaper than the other options.

Content Matters Too

Obviously, a pretty picture is not all you need. You also need good content. But a few minor adjustments to the pictures can really help.

Linked at

• Someday Crafts
• Blue Cricket Design

Photos Light

Photos Light is my new stock photography blog on Tumblr. License information will be posted with each photograph along with any other relevant information.

Notes and License

Click on the images to see the full-sized photograph.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Notes and License

Click on the images to see the full-sized photograph.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Notes and License

Click on the images to see the full-sized photograph.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Notes and License

Click on the images to see the full-sized photograph.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Notes and License

Click on the images to see the full-sized photograph.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Notes and License

Click on the images to see the full-sized photograph.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

• Level: Beginner
• Goal: To improve a poorly lit photograph by using it as a base for a painting design.
• Translatable: Yes
• Steps: 6

The preview above shows a small portion of the picture in order to show the details. Click on the preview to view the whole picture.

The Original Photograph

The original picture has poor lighting and is not particularly clear. However, despite its flaws it can be manipulated with Photoshop to look like a flower painting.

Step 1

Go to Layer -> Adjustment Layer -> Levels and adjust the levels by moving the slider so that it goes to the point of the edge of the curve. This will improve the lighting and contrast.

Step 2

This picture needs additional help due to the poor lighting so we will also be adding a curves layer. Go to Layer -> Adjustment Layer -> Curves. When you are done click ok.

Step 3

Goal: Get rid of the noise in the picture.

There are a number of methods for solving this problem. You can use the median filter that comes with Photoshop (Filter -> Noise -> Median), but that does not allow for much customization. You can use the Neat Image Reduce Noise plugin, but the free version can only be used for smaller pictures. For this image I used Medhi’s Noise Shampoo plugin. (Available from Medhi’s Plugins). Use the settings Clean 10.5 and check Enhanced.

Step 4

The noise shampoo gets rid of the noise, but it also makes the image less clear so this step helps remove the fuzziness before adding the paint effects.

Duplicated the layer and sharpened it (Filter -> Sharpen -> Sharpen). Duplicating the image is optional, but I like to make changes on a different layer as it makes it possible to later adjust the opacity.

Step 5

Duplicate the layer. Now go to Filter -> Filter Gallery -> Brush Strokes -> Crosshatch. Use the settings Stroke Length 5, Sharpness 6, and Strength 1. Adjust the settings as needed to fit your picture. In general more detailed objects will need a shorter stroke length than large and less detailed objects. When you have the settings you want click ok.

Step 6

This time duplicating the layer is required rather than optional. Go to Filter -> Filter Gallery -> Artistic -> Paint Daubs. Use the Settings Brush Size 2, Sharpness 5, and Brush Type Simple. Click ok. Go to the Layers Palette. Starting with 50% adjust the opacity as needed. If this step works for most of the picture, but makes a small area too sharp or pixelated, erase around that area.

Click on the final image to see the full-sized picture.