Editing images on the LG KC780

Using a hot-shot cameraphone like the LG KC780, you'll want to get the maximum out of its imaging potential. And packing an 8-megapixel camera, the LG KC780 has considerable shooting power to play with.

Its image-capturing facilities are plentiful and the end results are exceptional for a cameraphone (see our related article LG KC780 camera samples for an in-depth look).

In addition to a top-of-the-range pixel count, though, the KC780 has a decent selection of image editing options for tweaking pictures, adding image effects, and generally playing around with your photos once you've taken shots.

The editing application may be a far from the sophisticated software you can get on a desktop PC, but as well as making basic adjustments to images it's easy to use, doesn't take any special skills, and can add a bit of fun to your pictures.

Unlike some other cameraphones, however, the image editing option isn't immediately presented to you as an option as soon as you take an image, or via the camera album linked to the shooter. Once an image is saved, however, you can go into your My Stuff folder, select Images and then start editing in the way outlined below.

It's worth having a play with the software to get yourself familiar with what it can do; you don't have to save changes, and won't spoil your pictures as you experiment with the effects.

Here, we show you how to use it...

Editing images

1. From the standby screen, press Menu (Figure 1).
2. Scroll to highlight My stuff (Figure 2). Press OK.
3. Scroll to highlight Images (Figure 3). Press OK.
4. Scroll through the image folders. Highlight the one you want to browse (Figure 4). Press Open.
5. Scroll through the image thumbnails until you highlight the image you want to edit (Figure 5). Press Options.
6. Scroll down to highlight Edit image (Figure 6). Press OK.
7. You will now see the image displayed onscreen (Figure 7). Press Options to see a list of editing options (Figure 8). These include: Resize; Rotate; Crop; Insert; Special effect; Photo art; Frame effect; and Undo.
8. To see the editing options available for each of these, scroll down to highlight the option and press OK.

It's worth exploring these options fully to see just what you can do with the editing software - as you always have the choice of not saving any changes you make.

Select the sub menu option you want to try (see below for more details of what options are available), try out the effect and press OK when you're done making changes. Then press either Save to store the image with changes, or Back to leave without saving.

• If you press Back, you get the option to Cancel editing? Highlight Yes and press OK to exit the editing option and return to the image gallery. 
  to store the new file name
• If you select Save, you will be asked if you want to Overwrite? Highlight No and press OK if you want to retain a copy of the original image. You are then taken to another screen where you can type in a new name for the amended image file. Press Save

Image editing options

Resize - enables you to change the file size, which could be desirable if, say, you want to email or upload a file at a lower resolution than it's been saved at (smaller size files are quicker to send and use up less data). There are four image size options to choose from.

Rotate - allows you to flip the photo 90 degrees, 180 degrees or 270 degrees.

Crop - you can crop just a part of a picture, enabling you to have a tighter image, getting rid of extraneous bits of the shot around the edges. When you select one of the options (Figure 9), a box appears onscreen which you can move around in order to frame the part of the image you want to retain (you may find this looks quite small for your highest resolution shots). Once you've selected the portion of the picture you want to crop (Figure 10), press OK. Then press Save.

Insert - you can either insert text into the picture or an 'element'  - a piece of pre-loaded graphics, such as hearts or a pair of eyes. Text can be placed in a variety of boxes onscreen (Figure 11), and both text and elements can be positioned where you want them onscreen using the arrow keys to position them (Figure 12).

Special effects - enables you to add mainly colour- and rendering-based effects, such as black and white, colour negative, cartoon (Figure 13), sketch, paint, numerous face warp distortion effects (Figure 14), and a flip effect. For some of these there are further refined options.

Photo art - a selection of changes you can make to the image to give it a more 'artistic' look. Options include: spotlight (Figure 15); brightness; contrast; blur; sepia (Figure 16); enhanced red; and enhanced green. The positioning or levels of these effects can be adjusted using the phone's arrowed up/down/left/right keys.

Frame effect - illustrated frames are superimposed on the image. You can view them first (Figure 17), and then view them layered over the image (using the arrowed keys to scroll through them) until you find one you like. As in most options, you can then press OK, followed by Save, or you can press Back to exit the editor without saving (Figure 18).

There's also an undo option in case you want to get rid of any changes you've made to a picture.