Google Picasa

Google's Picasa (You may think I like Google- G-mail, Picasa.... Not everything. Some of their stuff is lame). But yes, Google is superior. LOL

Free program and it absolutely rocks. I use it for my Etsy photos. I'll go step by step as I touch up a photo. Starting, I use a white or pastel solid background in outside light. Light clouds are ideal, we don't like harsh shadows.

Raw photo

Cropped. For Etsy, crop to as close to square as possible, the first image that you upload really needs to be square. Etsy will show it as square on the search page and if it's too out of square, it'll look really odd and people aren't going to click. Unless it's very abstract- then people still click if they can tell what it is from the title

'I'm Feeling Lucky'
This doesn't always work for me. Sometimes it turns it weirdly pink or green, but this time I was lucky ;) You can always click 'undo' if you don't like it.

Still needed some sharpening- so I went over to the 3rd tab "Effects" and chose sharpen

Brightened some more. I have a phobia of neon colors and washed out pictures, but brighter really is better.

To an extreme.

Too bright 'Undo'

Soften edges? Are these angelic play veggies? :)




This is what my thumbnail would look like


I prefer to have a thumbnail that's more of a closeup. I'd use a diagonal carrot if possible. Diagonal looks better, in my opinion- it appears to take up more of the picture, yet still gives detail.