{"id":5090,"date":"2014-09-21T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-09-21T06:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=5090"},"modified":"2014-09-21T07:00:16","modified_gmt":"2014-09-21T06:00:16","slug":"5090","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=5090","title":{"rendered":"It's all about image…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Some<\/a>
Some of the ladies at the RNA chapter workshop – you’ll see what had them so interested when you get to the end of the blog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As writers \u2013 we paint pictures with words\u2026 right?<\/p>\n

But what about those times we need to paint pictures with \u2013 well\u2026 pictures.<\/p>\n

With blogs and Facebook and Pinterest and other social media \u2013 we all have to manage images at some time. And with phones in our cameras \u2026 who knows what opportunities will arise.<\/p>\n

This week I led a workshop on images and how to manipulate them for the London and South East Chapter of the Romantic Novelists Association.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the tips we talked about.<\/p>\n

Digital images are measured in pixels \u2013 so, for that matter, is your computer screen and your TV. The higher\u00a0the number of pixels \u2013 the clearer the image.<\/p>\n

\"When<\/a>
When you zoom right into the image – you can see the individual pixels… those squares of colour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A large image can be made smaller and keep its clarity \u2013 but a small picture (that is to say a small number of pixels) will look fuzzy when made large.<\/p>\n

So when you\u2019re asked to supply a high resolution image for publicity purposes \u2013 make sure you send an image with the largest number of pixels. To check how big your image is – right click on it and select properties…<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The most important information is the height and width in pixels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And in case you were wondering\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Those<\/a>
Those pixels belonged to the lovely Colin Firth can you guess which bit of this image?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But \u2013 when you are posting pictures to the web \u2013 a very large picture will take a long time to load \u2013 so it\u2019s better to reduce the size.<\/p>\n

Paint \u2013 a free and easy to use\u00a0application that comes with all windows PCs \u2013can do this. Resize image is the option to look for \u2013 BUT\u2026. Make sure you maintain the correct aspect ratio. But that I mean, reduce both sides by the same percentage \u2013 otherwise the image will stretch. Or – set one side to the size you want it – but check the option that says maintain aspect ratio and it will set the other side to the right length.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I usually set my longest side to about 400 pixels – that’s a good size for the web.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I sometimes see photos on FB or twitter which are sideways \u2013 oops!<\/p>\n

Rotate your pictures \u2013 Paint will do this too \u2013 or the windows preview screen will to.<\/p>\n

\"Never<\/a>
Never turn your head to look at an image again.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cropping can also be used to improve the focus of your shot \u2013 cut out the background and make the important part of the image the biggest part.<\/p>\n

\"Turn<\/a>
Turn the shot with mostly roof into a more intimate chat with authors at the Festival of Romantic Fiction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of this can be done with free software on your PC or even on your phone. There is also some free cloud applications that will take it even further\u2026 but if you are spending a lot of time working with images \u2013 it is worth getting some photo manipulation software. The options will be much greater \u2026<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some ideas of the sort of things you can do with relatively inexpensive software.<\/p>\n

\"lighten\"<\/a>
You can add light to a picture of your husband exploring the excavations under a French Chateau by candle light<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Easier<\/a>
Easier than doing laundry – you can remove that nasty spot in the sky caused by dust on your lens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"You<\/a>
You can straighten those annoying slightly crooked angles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The thing is \u2013 none of these things are hard to do. Just play around until you achieve a result you like and then try to remember how you did it. I always make sure I make a copy of the image first \u2013 and then play around with the copy \u2013 so I don\u2019t destroy the original.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lot of fun \u2013 (a great way to procrastinate \u2013 as if the Internet wasn\u2019t enough). It will help you make the most of the images you post to social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

And if you play around for a while, you might even end up with \u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
An image that could be quite inspiring…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As writers \u2013 we paint pictures with words\u2026 right? But what about those times we need to paint pictures with \u2013 well\u2026 pictures. With blogs and Facebook and Pinterest and other social…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7g6jm-5090","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janetgover.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}