Thread: Edit and share photos free of charge online

TO SIGN UP FOR Photoshop Express, download photoshop software this is still in an unfinished (or 'beta') state, but the main features are up and running and working pretty well. In any event, you should keep a backup copy of your photos on your PC or, better still, on an external hard disk or recordable DVD Gust in case). Either sign up for a free account by clicking the orange Join Now button, or click the blue Test Drive button to explore Photoshop Express using a no-strings test account that shows off the main features.

ONCE YOU'VE CREATED AN account and signed in,the main site appears. There are three main options here. The My Photos option is where photos can be viewed, edited and organised into 'albums'. The next option, My Gallery, is used to display photos and albums to other people visiting the site, while the Browse option allows you to view albums and photos put onto the site by other people. We haven't uploaded any photos yet, so let's begin by clicking the Upload Photos button.



THIS DIALOGUE BOX IS used to locate and choose photos to upload to the Photoshop Express . Adobe offers 2Gb of storage space free, which is enough to upload a good number of photos. We uploaded a batch of more than 50 photos and they came to less than 50Mb in total. When uploading a set of photos, you can tell the site to automatically group them together into an album or just load them into your library so you can organise them yourself later.


HERE'S THE BATCH OF photos we just uploaded, displayed in our main library window. There are a number of options available here. You can change the way you view the library, perhaps sorting the photos by date or rating. Alternatively, try grouping photos together and arranging them into albums, or log in to other sites such as Facebook and transfer photos to that account. Also, click on any individual photo to see1his dropdown menu appear, providing a number of other options. Let's get started by clicking one and selecting the Edit Photo option.

PHOTOSHOPEXPRESS NOW SWITCHES into its editing mode, which looks just like an ordinary photo-editing program, complete with toolbar running down the left-hand side ofthe browser window. Click the 'full¬screen' icon in the top-right comer of the window - as we've done here and Photoshop Express will hide the browser controls and expand to fill the screen. In effect, it's working like a proper photo-editing program, rather than a web browser. However, you can switch back to browser mode simply by clicking the 'full-screen' icon.


THIS PHOTO'S A BIT of a mess; it's too dark, has been struck by the dreaded red-eye and there's an ugly concrete doorpost on the left-hand side of the image. Let's start by using the AutoCorrect tool to adjust the lighting and contrast. Click on this and Photoshop Express displays a series of previews along the top of the editing window, showing how different settings affect the photo. Just click on a preview to see how it looks, then click the OK button - the tick on the top-right comer - to accept these settings.


WHILE WE'RE AT IT, let's use the Red-Eye tool to restore the normal eye colour, and the Crop tool to remove the concrete doorpost. There are a number of additional options, including tools for adjusting colour and focus. For example, you can tint photos with a specific colour, turn them black and white, or use the Sketch option to make the photo look like hand-drawn artwork. Notice the little tick marks beside the tools we've used - to undo any change, simply click it to remove the relevant tick.

IF THINGS GO BADLY wrong, just hit the Reset All button to revert to the original image, but if you 're happy with the changes, press Save to store the edited photo and return to the main library window. The next step is to click the Create Album button down at the bottom of the screen. We've created a new album for these wedding photos. You can simply drag and drop the required photos into the new album.

WITH AN ALBUM CREATED, the photos contained in it can be turned into an online slideshow. You can create a slideshow that simply fades from one picture to the next or try something much fancier. You can arrange your photos as a strip that slides across the screen, as a grid, or as a ring that rotates to show each photo. You can also use the 3D option to add perspective effects, making photos slide over one another as the slideshow progress.

YOURS PHOTOS AND ALBUMS remain private until you choose to add them to your public 'gallery'. Click on the My Gallery button at the top of the screen to enter the Gallery window. All albums are listed here and you can add an album simply by clicking to select it. Do this and other people who visit the Photoshop Express website can browse your Gallery. You can also set up a simple profile to describe yourself, as well as selecting a background image for the Gallery page.