EDITING THE FINAL IMAGE

One of the most useful advantages that digital photography has over traditional photography is in the editing of the final image.

One of the most useful advantages that digital photography has over traditional photography is in the editing of the final image. Amateur photographers using film have to rely on the processing lab to develop and print their images, and it is only with great difficulty that they can make adjustments to make them appear at their best. Those of us using digital have all the tools that we need at home to enhance and edit, bringing our images to life.

How much editing that we use on our photos before we print them can be quite a contentious topic among photographers. Some photographers that would call themselves “purists” will not tolerate any editing at all. There are others that make major adjustments to almost all of the pictures that they take. Between these two extremes there is plenty of middle ground.

A not very well known fact is, that unless the camera is set to the raw setting, many basic editing tasks are actually done in the camera. For the vast majority of photographers this is all that they require before they have their snaps printed. For them this keeps things easy and simple.

If you are to take your photography to another level and start to realise the potential that digital photography puts in your hands you will need a photo editing software programme. This will allow you to upload your images from the camera to your computer and then open them ready for you to perform all kinds of magic including adjusting colour, contrast, saturation, file size, brightness, cropping and spotting.

For the professional, or those with money to spare, the full version of Adobe Photoshop will provide more than enough editing power to meet the needs of the most discriminating photographers. You can expect to pay in the region of £600 for this imaging solution.

To find a free digital photo editing software programme that will ensure that you have the basic tools to produce top class results all you need to do is perform a Google search for “free photo editing software programme.” You should find plenty of results.

There are a number of programmes that are on the market that will meet the needs of the average photographer, the complete novice or the most serious amateur. All of these are much easier than Photoshop to use, and receive highly rated reviews in independent magazines. I write about some of these in the article “Photoshop and other image editing software” on this web site. Regardless of how much image editing that you intend to do there is a programme that will allow you to do exactly as you wish.

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