Digital Photo Tips by Duane Brovan

 

Digital Photo Editing Software!

You need a digital photo software program (Digital Photo Editing Software) in order to adjust and prepare your photos, that you took and now have on your computer, for printing or viewing. All digital cameras come bundled with such a program created specifically for that camera manufacture (i.e. CamMedia-Olympus, File Viewer-Canon, etc.). Sometimes camera manufactures will include sample or “Lite” versions of general editing software (i.e. Photoshop, Elements, etc.). They are limited versions and usually are missing some of the programs features. Once a person gets used to the manufactures’ program and would like more adjustments and more tools it is time to purchase a photo editing program. These programs can run from $50-$800 with the most popular being “PhotoShop”, “Elements”, “Print Shop”, “Photo Paint” and “Photo Imaging”. Listed below are some of the features you can use with Digital Photo Editing Software. (Each topic below will be elaborated on in future tip articles).

View (Browse) Photos:

All Photo Editing Software has a view (browse) mode, which allows you to view your digital photos. This is handy to see which photos are the best and might need a little adjusting. Most browsers will recognize Jpeg file format, some will read other formatted files (i.e. RAW, Tiff, PNG, etc.). Others have also their own file format and require the specific program to open and view those photos.

Adjust Photos:

After you pick the photos that are best it is time to make adjustments to color, saturation, sharpness, size and resolution. Some programs have “Auto” adjustments for color, saturation and sharpness, and most of the time they do a good job at adjusting the photos. If either nothing happens or it all goes wrong, just “Undo”, and try your own adjustments. Remember that what your monitor looks like might not be what your printer prints out. What I do is usually adjust my photos for both the monitor and for print. Usually they will look different on the monitor, but all monitors and printers are different and you might not have that problem.

Manipulate Photos:

Some photo programs allow you to remove things from the photo and add items, change perspective, level your photo, highlight an area or crop your photo. It is truly amazing to see how a person can take a so-so photo, make some adjustments and it then becomes a good photo. As one is taking the photos they should keep on their mind what might be needed in a photo for later manipulations. For example, I might shoot a slightly wider shot knowing I might need to rotate the photo later or be able to crop the photo to center the subject. Your best photos usually need very little manipulation.

Useful Tips:

PhotoShop Elements 3 is a good digital photo software program and costs about $100. It is a watered down version of PhotoShop and has most of the features a digital photographer could need. Save any adjusted and/or manipulated photos in Tiff format. Each time you open and make any changes to a Jpeg file and save it in Jpeg format, you loose some of your photo information. Do that too many times and you will lose details in your photo. That also brings up what I have written earlier “Always save your original digital photos on a CD”. If you forget and save in Jpeg format you can always copy the original from your CD.

 

Duane Brovan is available for digital photo consultations and tutoring: