I have a camera phone, and I find that many pictures are too dark, even blurry. I want to try a photo editing program. Do you have any suggestions or tricks that I should try?--Diane King, Orlando, Florida

Camera phones have improved dramatically in the last few years, but most of them still take lousy pictures compared to more advanced point-and-shoot cameras or digital SLRs. It doesn't surprise me that you're getting poorly exposed and blurry photos.

The exposure problem you can fix, at least to a limited degree, in a photo editing program. I suggest that you increase the brightness, which you can do using a feature like the in most image editors.

Blur is a little more difficult to correct--and by difficult, I mean you can't fix it afterwards. You have to avoid blur when you take the picture. To do that, hold the phone as steady as possible, and be sure there's plenty of light available, since camera phones tend to do poorly in low light.