What photo filters actually do to your image
Every filter is a stack of ordinary operations: curves, saturation scaling, colour shifts, local contrast and noise. Here is what each one does to your pixels, why...
Tutorials
Step-by-step tutorials for image editing and conversion tools
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What image upscaling can and cannot do
Two very different technologies are sold under the same word. Interpolation enlarges an image and invents nothing; AI upscalers generate plausible detail that was...
How to shoot product photos with a phone
Your phone camera is not the problem. Window light and a bounce card, a seamless paper sweep, locked exposure and white balance, and no digital zoom will fix most...
How to scan and restore old photos
Choose your scan resolution from the output you want, not from a number someone quoted you. This covers the arithmetic, flatbed versus phone capture, dust and...
How to pull a colour palette out of an image
Palette extraction finds the colours a photo is actually made of by grouping similar pixels into clusters, which is why it gives you something usable and a plain...
How to crop a photo well
Cropping is the cheapest edit you can make and the one most likely to decide whether a photo works. What each aspect ratio is for, why the rule of thirds is a...
How to crop a profile picture that works everywhere
Your avatar is seen at the size of a fingernail, so it has to work as a shape, not a photograph. How tight to crop, where to put the eyes, why the circular mask...
How to turn images into a PDF
Wrong page sizes, thick white borders and a forty megabyte document are not bad luck, they are decisions the converter made for you. Here is what PDF actually does...
How to watermark photos without ruining them
Every watermark damages the photo it protects, so the job is minimising that damage while still getting something back. A practical guide to placement, opacity...
Resize, Convert and Compress an Image in One Pass
One photo, three tools, three uploads: the workflow everyone suffers through. Here is how to crop, resize, convert and compress an image in a single pass, with the...
AI Action Figure and Chibi Prompts: 9 Templates for the Toy Trend
The toy-figure trend will not die, it just keeps mutating. Nine copy-paste prompt templates for boxed action figures, chibi desk figures, pet figures and couple...
The Pixel Stretch Trend: How to Do It Free, With or Without Photoshop
The 2008 Photoshop effect is viral again. Here is how pixel stretch works, the free browser way to do it in Photopea, and the aspect-ratio rescue trick designers...