Adding and Editing Portraits, Frames & Symbols

HIDING FACES 

Often on the internet people use photos and edit out a face. It could be their own face so they remain anonymous. Or a companion who is irrelevant. Or all the other people on the group photo so you can identify the author of the blog. Or the other person is a stranger who has not given permission for the picture to be used. Or a picture of a child such as a grandchild should be edited out for safety reasons. 

Angela Lansbury. Selfie.

 What do people do to hide unwanted faces? I've seen untidy zig zags of black lines. Obviously neater if you can cut out one half of the picture with an editing square by moving in the sides of the picture. But sometimes the shape of the unwanted overlapping people rules out that option. I saw a photo with the face hidden by a white heart. I thought that's much prettier than a splodge or a square. I'd like to know how you create a white heart. I'm sure it's easy for all the creative graphic design people and the IT experts. 

CROPPING PHOTOS

On a Samsung smart phone you can crop photos. Or do a vignette.

If you are loading photos onto your contacts from camera, you can move the photo around and change its size to cut out bystanders.

To cut out a distracting object such as a sheep in the field behind you, you can use an editing program such as photoshop. Practise on an old photo which doesn't matter or something out of date which you have copied from Wikipedia, such as Queen Victoria and Albert, cutting out first Victoria, then Albert, then others in the photo.

FINDING IMAGES 

I take my travel photos from Wikipedia. I know they are free.

They may require credit. If in doubt, I just copy the entire box from Wikipedia.

The other day I came across a list of two or three websites which had clip art type free images. Can't remember where it was. Maybe on face book. 

 Assuming you are in a hurry. You find a picture you want to use. Then you load it up into a picture editing programme. If you don't yet have one or you are sitting in a library using a public computer, search on the internet. 

 EDITING BLOCKS OF COLOUR OR SHAPES

 Then what? The picture editing programmes have pop up boxes of icons you click on to create circles and squares. I supposed you could quickly indent the top of the oval with a v shape and add a V shape at the bottom. Or edit the edges of the rectangle by curving them, chip away. 

Angela Lansbury in heart frame with orchid.

Angela Lansbury in heart frame, cropped. Photo by Angela and edited by Angela.

How to MAKE A HEART FRAME?

 Do you draw a heart in black freehand and fill it with white? Or red or pink? Or import a black heart and change it to white? Or blow up a clip art heart? Or blow up a heart symbol from fonts. Save it to your Pictures directory. I made a heart shape to surround a photograph of myself with the aid of a computer whiz I met through an Internet site. (Thanks. You know who you are.) 

Heart Frame

 He simply drew the right hand side of the heart and copied it on the right hand side of the page and flipped it over left to right, mirror image.

About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

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