Introduction To Digital Photo Editing Basics
Editing photos has changed a lot over the last twenty years
. Retouching and editing that used to take hours of eye straining work, now can be done with a click of a mouse. So to start learning how to edit your digital images, here are some basics that will get you started.
Photo Editing Software
There is a long list of software on the market that is made exclusively for editing photos. They have an incredible range in terms of both price and quality. Ultimately, you have to decide how much editing you want to do with your pictures and how much you want to spend. For this article, we won't talk too much about different bits of software's pluses and minuses, but know that there are options. If you're looking for free editors, you should look at The Giimp or Paint.net or if you want to buy a professional program definitely check out Adobe Photoshop.
Functions of Photo Editing Software
Although photo editing software can be very complex and allow for endless creativity, here are a few basic things that you'll want to know right away.
Crop: Cropping involves creating a new picture by removing the parts of the image that you don't want or need. So, anything inside the frame will become part of the new cropped photo while any part of the picture outside of the frame will not be included. Just remember that when you crop an image, it ultimately changes the final dimensions of your picture so make sure to crop with the same aspect ratio (or width to height) otherwise your printed picture won't come out.
Contrast: Contrast impacts how much the colors or tones stand out from one another. Add contrast and you'll see your darks get darker and your lights get lighter, remove contrast and eventually everything will cloud into a gray fog. Higher contrasts can make for interesting imagery, but will also make the grain of your photos stand out more.
Level of Brightness: Brightness refers to the level of lighting of the entire picture. If you've taken a picture that turned out too dark, turning up the brightness may help some of the details stand out. With a little practice, sometimes you can save an otherwise un-usable picture by slowly increasing the contrast and brightness together.
Photo Saturation: Saturation refers to how deep your colors are. In a color image, if you completely remove the saturation the image will turn to black and white. If you amp it up, your colors will quickly begin to look unnatural and super-bright.
The Hue: The hue changes the tone of your picture. If you change the hue, your picture will change from a green or blue tint to purple, red or any other possible color. Although it takes a little time to get used to, changing the hue can make a big improvement to images taken under fluorescent light.
Transforming Your Photo: Although each piece of software does it slightly different, they all basically let you flip, rotate, or re-size your picture. Hopefully you won't have to make too many adjustments of this nature, but should an image turn out slightly crooked it's good to know you have alternatives.
Regardless of which photo editing software you use, you should be able to adjust all of the elements mentioned above so you can get your photos exactly how you want them. One way you can bring out the photo's color and add depth is to increase the contrast while decreasing the saturation. If you can, try to do most of your composition work while taking the picture so you can avoid being overly dependent on photo editing software. If you're going to take the time to edit your pictures, make sure you start off with a picture that looks good from the get go.
by: Autumn Lockwood
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