Changing Homepage Visible Content

How do I change how much of a post is displayed on the homepage?

How can I also add in a link to the rest of the article, or even a clickable view more link that would expand the entire post on the homepage?

Finally, I saw in another thread that you were adjusting the behavior of the first image so that it would not display or display differently. I would like to request if it were possible to have the photos display but in a more simple fashion like they appear in the actual page (instead of a hover circle image like the featured posts).

For reference my website is rukristin.com/findyourvoice

It would be so helpful if everyone started linking their blogs and pages so that we could see the theme in action and help each other out!