Page 568 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

can press Shift and the arrow keys to resize the cropping rectangle, or Ctrl

and the arrow keys to move it.)

The “Aspect ratio” pop-up button offers a choice of canned proportions:
Square, 3 × 2, 4 × 3, and so on. They make the app limit the cropping frame
to preset proportions. (The “Make portrait” choice makes the cropping

rectangle tall and skinny.)

Filters

All those Instagram fans can’t be wrong—filters must be a thing. They’re

special effects that tinker with a photo’s colors so it takes on certain looks—
like an old Polaroid, or an old 1970s home photo, for example. You can “try
on” various filters by selecting the little preview squares one after another.
Use the “Filter intensity” slider to govern how much of this effect you want

to apply.

The other useful option on the Filters tab is the “Enhance your photo” tile
(bearing the icon). When you click the magic wand, the app analyzes the

relative brightness of all the pixels in your photo and attempts to “balance”
it. After a moment, the app adjusts the brightness and contrast and

intensifies dull or grayish-looking areas. Usually the pictures look richer
and more vivid as a result.

You may find that this button has little effect on some photos, minimally

improves others, and totally rescues a few.

Adjustments

This section offers options like Light (exposure), Color (saturation), Clarity
(sharpness), and Vignette (lightens or darkens the photo’s corners).

Note that you can open the flippy for Light or Color to reveal further sub-
sliders (Figure 8-28). For Light, they include the following:

Contrast. If your photo looks flat, use this effect to bring out
details. It makes the dark parts of your photo a little darker, and the
light parts a little lighter.