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Tutorial: How to find music images and edit them easily


Posted: 03 Apr 2021 10:47
devastator
Posts: 24
Joined: 2020-12-05

Finding images in general:
Most images you will find using search engines.
Before you do that, obviously check audiodb and fanart.tv.
Sometimes artists' websites or record labels have pages with media press kits and promotional artwork.
Example: https://media.nuclearblast.de/apps/media/lounge/
Look for those first.

Search engines:
Google used to be king for image search, but they stripped down their search options some ago.
These days, i prefer duckduckgo, since they have more options and always display pixel size (also for privacy reasons).
https://duckduckgo.com ► safe search: off, size: Wallpaper (find nothing? go lower) etc.

Some tricks:
- BAND NAME imagesize:1920x1080 ► searches for images in 1080p (adjust to size you're looking for).
- "BAND NAME" ► use quotation marks to search for an exact word or set of words.
- BAND NAME filetype:png ► search for a specific filetype.
Especially useful if you're looking for a band logo.

If you combine these tricks, you can be very specific in your search requests.
Example:
"Al Bano & Romina Power" logo filtype:png

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Editing graphics:
Basic editing can be done very fast with IrfanView and a few keyboard shortcuts.
"IrfanView (/ˈɪərfænvjuː/) is an image viewer, editor, organiser and converter program for Microsoft Windows" (Wikipedia)
https://www.irfanview.com/64bit.htm ► install 64-bit version + plugins (!)

Example guide:
Resize an image larger than 1080p to 1920x1080 pixels, to be used as fanart

1.) open image with IrfanView

2.) Leftclick into the image and drag your mouse to create a square.
In the top bar, IrfanView will display the selected pixelsize/aspect ratio.
Simply drag the sides of your square to your desired pixelsize.



3.) Cutting:
If only one side is the right pixel size and the other is too large:
- leftclick, drag square to desired size
- Ctrl* + Y ► cuts the image to size

[* or Strg, depending on origin of keyboard]

4.) Resizing:
- Ctrl + R
This opens "Resize/resample image".
"Set new size" ► width: 1920 or height: 1080, depending on the aspect ratio

5.) save image with Ctrl + S

tl;dr:
- drag with left mouse, pixelsize is displayed at top while doing it
- Ctrl + Y ► cut
- Ctrl + R ► resize
- Ctrl + S ► save image


i usually need 5 to 10 seconds to resize/edit an image that way.

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Depending on feedback, i'll create another tutorial,
on how to create/edit clearlogos and transparent pngs using PhotoShop or free alternatives.


👍 zag
Posted: 03 Apr 2021 10:48
devastator
Posts: 24
Joined: 2020-12-05

Fore more tutorials, check out the videos by fanart.tv on YT:
https://www.youtube.com/c/FanartTv0/videos

They also have a dedicated page for tutorials:
https://fanart.tv/tutorials/

If you don't have PhotoShop and find Gimp too complicated...
a free browser alternative is https://www.photopea.com/


Try creating clearlogos with drop shadow and then you can move to more complicated things like cutting out hair, creating clearart incl. a band logo etc.




Posted: 03 Apr 2021 20:46
zag
Posts: 224
Joined: 2020-07-14

Thanks this is very useful

Posted: 12 May 2021 18:46
devastator
Posts: 24
Joined: 2020-12-05

[updated]

👍 zag

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