KACHARAGADLA

MUNICH: Every digital camera comes with a variety of automatic functions - but that still doesn't guarantee perfection with every picture. They can come out blurry, with the horizon at a tilt, the children's eyes red or the summit peak out of focus - any of which can be particularly annoying when you're going through your snapshots after a vacation. But there are free programmes out there that offer help to beginners and let some of these snaps avoid the recycling bin. Automatic functions in these programmes can be the biggest boon to beginners when it comes to photo manipulation. 'They're a sensible place to start,' says Sebastian Lang of the German magazine Chip Foto Video. Only after trying those should inexperienced users turn to the manual regulation of contrast or colour saturation. A standard beginner's mistake is the slanted horizon of a picture taken without a tripod. In landscape shots, this can make it look like the ocean is about to