Edit photos from your W850i handset

The Sony Ericsson W850i comes with a wealth of picture editing tools that you can use to spice up photos taken with the phone camera. You can add clipart images, frames and effects by using the edit function.

From the standby screen, press the centre button to enter the main menu. Scroll down and left to highlight File manager and press Select (Figure 1). Highlight Camera album and press Select (Figure 2). Here you’ll see your stored photos – scroll down to the one you want to edit and press View (Figure 3). You’ll see a vertical preview of your photo (Figure 4), so press More and a new menu will appear.

Scroll down to highlight Edit in PhotoDJ and press Select (Figure 5). The next screen will show the photo and a row of tool icons. From left to right, these are:

Auto level – automatically corrects colour imbalance in poor lighting conditions. Highlight and press Select to activate. If you like the result, press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Light balance (Figure 6) – lets you correct images that appear too dark when captured, without lightening the entire image. Highlight and press Select to activate, use the up and down nav keys to move the slider and press OK to confirm.

Brightness & contrast (Figure 7) – brightness lightens or darkens an entire image, while contrast alters the balance between dark and light colours. Highlight and press Select to activate, use the up and down nav keys to move the contrast slider and the left and right nav keys to move the brightness slider. Press OK to confirm

Red-eye removal – Automatically removes the red-eye effect caused by flash photography. Highlight and press Select to activate,

Rotate (Figure 8) – Rotates the captured image 90 degrees clockwise. Highlight and press Select to rotate. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Add effect – runs your image through one of four creative effect filters – Negative, Cartoon, Frosted glass and Painting. Highlight the Add effect icon, press Select to call up the menu, highlight your choice of effect and press Select. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Add item – Add clipart, a frame or text to your image. Highlight the Add item icon, click Select and choose from the three choices on offer by highlighting and clicking Select.

Clipart – A range of clipart items will appear. Use the navigation keys to select an item, click Select to return to your photo and use the navigation keys again to position the item on your image. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Frames – You’ll see a range of frames. Use the navigation keys to pick a frame, click Select to apply. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Text – Selecting text opens a text editor. Type up to two lines of text (around 40 characters) using the keypad, press OK to return to the photo and use the navigation keys to position the text. There is no way to change the size or colour of the text, which is white. Press OK to confirm or Undo to reject.

Working on copies
If you don’t want to risk spoiling a photo accidentally, you can create a duplicate of any picture by highlighting it in the Camera Pictures menu, then pressing More. Scroll down to highlight Manage file (Figure 9) and press Right. Now press Copy (Figure 10) on the new menu and select where you want the duplicate to appear. To create a copy alongside your other photo, choose Memory Stick and press Select (Figure 11), then highlight Camera album (Figure 12) and press Select. Now press Paste to make a copy (Figure 13).