Paint lets you clean up the content of the picture by copying from one spot in the photo and pasting to another. I used this to hide things I didn't want to see in the Richard Diebenkorn picture, namely the electric lines crossing the street, and in the Mark Rothko to hide something unexplainable and simplify the image, simplify it in ways that go with what a Mark Rothko abstract would look like. Perhaps this is cheating. You copy one piece of sky and paste it over another. Sometimes I am happy with the results, and sometimes I'm not.
Both HP and Picasa let you straighten the picture with Picasa providing the better tool. It puts a grid over the picture so you can see when it's straight.
Both HP and Picasa will crop the picture, but Picasa wants to think it knows what you want while HP gives you full control. The crop is part of the artistic content of the picture. The Mark Rothko is a crop. Many of these pictures are crops.
Major flaw in the HP software is that if you click too close to the rotation arrows, it thinks you want to rotate the picture and then offers you no way out of this change. Far better that it required you to click directly on the arrows. Or better yet that you did this in the Edit screen.
Both HP and Picasa have redeye functions. I don't use much flash so I don't get a lot of redeye.
HP has a button called Photo fix which changes the image in unpredictable ways and then offers no undo or cancel option if you don't like it. Picasa offers an "I'm feeling lucky" button with similar results. These you can undo. Mary Cassatt used this option with fine results, in my opinion.
I rather like the HP adaptive lighting option which shows you a series of changes and lets you compare and select one if you want.
HP also offers a function to save the photo in a smaller format, a function which has been used for all the pictures shown on this blog.
Picasa has a lot of interesting options, and always includes a cancel button. One lets you add text to the picture. Perhaps this is how operachic puts text on the pictures. This widget offers fonts and sizes. There is even a transparency option.
I haven't figured out the retouch in Picasa. It doesn't do what I would want. I would like to be able to erase something in the foreground and have the software replace it with surrounding background. Nothing does this.
Picasa has a tuning screen with gradients of light and shadow. Picasa also has a screen with 12 different effects. Some just change the color: sepia, B&W, tint and graduated tint. These remove the existing color and then add others. Warmify, glow and saturation modify the existing colors. I would like to see something that let you do things that are more daring in this area.
This is a saturated version of a previously posted sunset called Scenery. Ich liebe Sonnenuntergaenge and Moonset are in their natural condition. Nature provided the saturation.
The soft focus effect makes the edges of the picture fuzzy while the center stays clear.
This lovely couple looks nice in soft focus. They live at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel and are from a painting by Gustave Caillebotte.
Sharpen doesn't work too well. Film grain simulates the effect of printing on coarse grained paper. It's cute. These are fun and cost nothing.
Picasa takes over your computer in annoying ways.
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