Two simple ways to make pictures of your friends and family look better.

1. Re-sample picture and change everyone to be thinner and taller…Automatically lose ten pounds...

Let's suppose you have a snapshot of width of 2048 pixels and height of 1536…

Click on Image: Image size: UNCHECK the box called "Constrain Proportions" and change the width to 1946 and height to 1614…this is the same as changing the width to 95% and the height to 105%…

This is enough of a change that people will look better (assuming that your friends and family are like most Americans: overweight) yet this is not such a radical change as to make your picture look fake.

Crop the changed image with a rectangle of 4 to 3 aspect ratio so that the the final picture will be the same shape as is naturally produced by the camera… That way people viewing the pictures will not suspect your trick.




















After picture below, Before picture above...


2. Use the Lasso tool to select and blur the cheeks and forehead. Why show crows feet around the eyes? Why show blotchy skin? No need, just use the filter called gaussian blur to smooth out your friend's complexion... The Lasso tool can select with a soft edge…on my picture of 2048x1536 used a 12 pixel soft edge…Filter-> Blur-> Gaussian Blur: Radius=20…

After Blurring Skin photo below…


















some mysteries yet to be revealed…like, if the background is brightly colored but the subject is dark…how does someone make the person brighter and more visable and the background less visable?

Know the answer? email me at gregvan[at]yahoo[dot]com