subject: If You Want To Know How To Sell Photographs, Enlist The Help Of Photoshop! [print this page] If You Want To Know How To Sell Photographs, Enlist The Help Of Photoshop!
If you have decided that you want to sell photographs, then Photoshop will be a tool you must have. While it's fair to say you should always compose 'in camera', to get the best shot you can, I know that just about every professional photographer out there carries out at least some minor Photoshop tweaking to every single shot they take. Bearing that in mind, you have a choice between the full Photoshop software (which can cost around $700) or the more affordable Elements version (available for around $100).So will Elements meet your needs? It's fair to say that many people never need the high-power, professional tools offered in Photoshop. Someone once said it's like 'putting a professional digital camera in the hands of a beginner'. This is a big debate, and a decision you ultimately need to make based on your circumstances. Suffice to say that Elements will get you there in the majority of cases, and will ultimately be easier to use. What I did was use Elements for a few years, then moved up to the full version once I had got fully used to how Elements works - it's like taking a 'natural' step up.Regardless of the type of photography you are doing you will find that you can make vast improvements to your pictures. Photoshop has an unbelieveable range of features. It covers everything from basic red-eye reduction, adding text to pictures and improving brightness and contrast. But you can get really creative and boost colours, improve exposure, produce filter effects...the list is (almost) endless, and mind-boggling. There are cheaper and easier to use programs, but Photoshop is by far superior, and will give you the most help if you want to be able to sell photographs.Photoshop should not be used to repair photographs: - it is good to stay disciplined and try to get the best results you can 'in camera'. However, there are times when that telegraph pole just needs to go to transform an ordinary landscape into a work of art, and similar circumstances. If you shoot in RAW mode, too, you can have even more control - like adjusting White Balance quickly and easily with just one click.If you want to sell photographs for portrait work, Photoshop will, of course, help, by allowing you to smooth skin and boost skin tones, in order to produce an ultimately flattering picture of your subject. However, many professional portrait photographers find a separate piece of software designed to do this specific job much more easy, and efficient, to use. The name of this is 'Portrait Professional'. It is user friendly; you can make your subjects look like a cover girl (or man, of course) within just a few minutes. I even managed to make my wife look good! I picked up my version for around $60, and haven't stopped using it since.
