Improving your Photographs

Every digital camera comes with software to edit photographs but many people don't bother to use it, here is a guide to how easy it is.

The example photograph was taken on a dull day and it's been under exposed by about one stop so it's very dark, most would delete it. After editing you will see it has been improved.
 
 Load the image into the software, this is the
 original photograph.
 The image is lightened by increasing the
 brightness.      
 
 The photograph is very contrasty so contrast
 is reduced.
  Next the colour is intensified by using the
 saturation control.
 
 Sharpen the photo, this improves most images but if it's overdone it will give an artificial  effect,
 so take it easy. This is the final edited shot.

It took only three minutes to change this photo from one that should be deleted to a shot that looks satisfactory.

Always save edited photographs with a different name to the original, just in case you decide you're not happy with the changes you've made. If you want to make alterations later go back to the original not the edited version. Every time a JPEG is saved quality is lost so if you keep on saving the same file it will soon deteriorate.
 
 Removing Red Eye

Every editing program comes with a red eye removal feature and it's easy to use.

Load the image into the program, make sure the face is large on the screen, zoom in if necessary. Click on the red eye control, the mouse pointer will change into a cross or lasso (depends on the program), click on the red eye and it's gone.

If your photographs suffer from red eye they can be enhanced
 
 in a couple of clicks of the mouse button, it's well worth the effort.

Most photographs will benefit from a bit of tweaking, you don't have to be a Photoshop expert, just use the basic controls it only takes a few minutes. If you're not editing your photographs you're losing one of the major benefits of digital photography.

There are free photo editing programs on the web including Photoplus 6, Kodak Easyshare and Google Picasa.

Back up your Photographs

Hard drives on computers do get corrupted so don't have just the original copy of your pictures or you risk losing them. CDs and DVDs are ideal for copying files, they should be stored away from the computer. If you back up straight after downloading your images, it won't take long.