Getting started in Photo Editing

There are several reasons why we, the average photographers of today are better photographers than the average "snapper" was in the "old days". And by better, I mean, we take more "keepers" and have fewer "Oh rats, that picture didn't come out right" moments. Here's why:

1. Consumers today have access to much better cameras. In the OLD days, many people might have used a good old Kodak Instamatic or other camera with a fixed (non-zoom) lens, of poor to average quality, with a fixed aperture and shutter speed. Heck, we've all used those disposal 35mm cameras too. Today's digicams however put good glass, variable ISO, faster shutters, zoom lenses, image stabilization, and much more into the hands of just about anyone who can afford to spend as little $100 to $200 for a point and shoot, and upwards for even more sophistication and quality. The result, better pictures.
2. With a digital camera, we have instant feedback on the quality of our shots: we can immediately see and experience delight or delete. Gone are the days of headless relatives from Grammy's last birthday party. Do you have an Uncle Stan who is best remembered for his nice shoes, but no one can quite recall his face? Hmmm.
3. And finally, Photo editing. Old days: you needed a dark room, which required knowledge, space, and expense: all in all, a commitment most average photographers were not willing to make. Today: software, and more and more often, in-camera editing features, allow us the ability to make improvements to our pictures after we've taken them.

And yet, there are some people I meet who are averse to photo editing because, they say:

"Photography is not art, it is reality; we shouldn't manipulate a photo - it should capture things the way they are". In other words, "It is what it is". That's certainly true, photography often is a means to capture reality, and that's what many photogs do. But do your photos always capture reality the way you saw it? Too often we snap away and get a picture that is too bright, too dark, has flat colors, our loved ones look possessed with demonic red eyes, the horizon is drifting off towards the southeast, and worse. I think all would agree - this is not reality. Photo editing can get your photos back to the reality that inspired you to take the picture in the first place.

In fact, today's best cameras, as technologically advanced as they are, cannot capture the dynamic range of light that the human eye can. So it's not uncommon to view with our eyes a picturesque scene, (such as a bright blue sky over craggy mountains with lots of light and dark contrast in the details), only to later look at the picture we took, and see a sky that is all white or the mountains just a dark shadow.

Of course, photo editing can be used to enhance details or characteristics of a photo to make it different from reality. Famous American photographer Ansel Adams frequently used dodging and burning techniques in the darkroom to make his photos even more dramatic than they appeared in reality. We can add or remove distracting objects from a scene; we can even add or remove a person. Wouldn't you like to have a photo of yourself with a famous historical figure, celebrity or standing somewhere unique, say, the moon?? All possible with photo editing.

Click on this Web Album for examples of before and after photos where simple photo editing was performed to bring a photo "back to reality", or in one case, to create something a little different. View in Slideshow mode for best results.

"Photo editing is too difficult to do, I can't figure out those programs and don't have the time or desire to learn. And besides, they're too expensive". Yep - all true, unless you know which programs to use, and where to get them.

There are many options available to you so that you can get started and learn to improve your pictures, whether your goal is to have a picture that really reflects the reality of what you saw, or to enhance a shot to be better or at the least, different, from reality. And some of these options are not only easy to learn and use, but they're FREE! That's right free and easy. What's not to like??!!

The first on my list is Picasa, a bare bones but effective, free, easy, photo viewer and editor that you can begin using almost immediately. The Basic Fixes panel allows you to Crop, Straighten, remove Redeye, adjust Contract and Color effortlessly. There's even an "I'm Feeling Lucky" button which will let Picasa analyze your photo, determine what changes are needed (if any) and make them. All changes can be undone so experimenting is not only a good way to get your picture just right, but also the best way to learn Picasa's feature. The Tuning panel gives you more fine control over lighting and color adjustments and is effective at removing color casts. The Effects tab gives you 12 push-button effects so you can really get creative. Some of these Effects are fine-tunable, like saturation and the black and white converter, some, like sharpness are not.

Picasa is owned and offered by Google, so you know it will be around for a while. Google offers free upgrades periodically; the current version is 2.7. It's also very stable on a Windows PC, but unfortunately, as of this writing, Picasa is not available for the Mac. Picasa has some RAW handling capabilities and integrates with Blogs (like this one). It does not have the ability to make selections, so you can't for instance, brighten or otherwise edit just an area of a picture - it's all or none.

Two of my favorite features in Picasa are the ability to make edits to your photos without having to save the changes. That is, if you make a change to a photo in Picasa, then come back the next day and call up that picture again (in Picasa), any edits you made yesterday are still shown and can be undone. Many other photo editing applications require you to save your changes or you'll lose them. With Picasa, you can undo previous changes and make new changes at a later date. If you want the picture, with your edits, to be viewable outside of Picasa, such as if you were going to email it or print it, you would Export it, which creates a copy with your changes saved, although your original image is still available.

The other great feature is that Picasa integrates seamlessly with Google's Picasa Web Albums. This is a terrific, free way to share your photos with others, either publicly for all the world to see, or privately with only the people with whom you want to share.

If you're looking for your first photo editor, or something that you can use in seconds with very good results, I highly recommend Picasa, which you can download here.

Another application is one I just discovered recently, and have only explored briefly, but so far, it has impressed me. Photoscape is another free program that you can download and easily use to view and edit your photos. I can best describe it as Picasa on steroids. While not quite as easy to use as Picasa it has much more functionality. The editor gives you greater flexibility in controlling brightness, color and with the filters options, you can get very creative and reduce noise. It also has a screen capture feature which is handy and a brightness control that works wonders on a photo with dark areas from which you'd like to bring out some detail. Photoscape provides numerous frame options so that you can surround your picture with some interesting borders before printing or posting. It has some RAW support but like Picasa, allows no selections. Nor is it available for the Mac.

Oddly, the Photoscape online home page has Google Picasa banners above and below, although as far as I can tell, Google has no connection to Photoscape. Also, Help is skimpy and not always clear. If you've never used a photo editor, start with Picasa. If you've already used a basic editor, try Photoscape for some of it's "better than basic" features. You can download Photoscape here.

There are many other fine photo editing applications including Adobe's Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Elements, and my favorite, Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. The latter can be downloaded for a free 30 day trial. These programs are much more advanced than the two I described above, and recommended for the intermediate amateur and above. But if you're just beginning, give Picasa or Photoscape a try. Don't be afraid to experiment - you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results, and your ability.

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