Photography Editing

M

MrBob

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Edit My Images
Yes
As i am new to all aspects of Photography i was wondering how much has to do with editing ?

Also what editing programmes/tools are best to use ?
 
If you shoot digital it can range from 0% editing to 99% editing. All depends what your you want as your end result.

I'd thoroughly recommend Paint Shop Pro as a good way to ease yourself into editing as it's cheap and incredibly powerful and can share many plugins etc with Photoshop.
 
^thanks for the software suggestion. I am a newbie in photography, and I need to learn a lot of things, including editing and minor touches.
 
The best thing is to learn to take the picture right so you don't need to edit much, if at all....... Frame it right, get the exposure right, and press the button at the right moment....... Sadly, many people are over-reliant on editors, and neglect the basics
 
Organnyx said:
The best thing is to learn to take the picture right so you don't need to edit much, if at all....... Frame it right, get the exposure right, and press the button at the right moment....... Sadly, many people are over-reliant on editors, and neglect the basics
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And when you've got it all right and wonder why your shots aren't as vibrant as you'd expected. You'll realise that some 'processing' is required. Just like its always been.
In the old days (film) good photographers did their own darkroom work to create their vision. Joe public used to drop their film at Boots, who's machines did their best to 'enhance' the pictures.

With digital we have similar choices, we can set the camera to JPEG, tweak the parameters for the style we want and hope the machine does it for us. Or we can shoot Raw and take control of how the files look properly.

It's not 'reliance on processing' it's the same photographic process we've had since Henry Fox Talbot gave us the negative which created the 2 stage process to creating a photograph.

Of course you can pretend your photography is all about camera technique. But it's never really been the case.
 
Phil V said:
And when you've got it all right and wonder why your shots aren't as vibrant as you'd expected. You'll realise that some 'processing' is required. Just like its always been.
In the old days (film) good photographers did their own darkroom work to create their vision. Joe public used to drop their film at Boots, who's machines did their best to 'enhance' the pictures.

With digital we have similar choices, we can set the camera to JPEG, tweak the parameters for the style we want and hope the machine does it for us. Or we can shoot Raw and take control of how the files look properly.

It's not 'reliance on processing' it's the same photographic process we've had since Henry Fox Talbot gave us the negative which created the 2 stage process to creating a photograph.

Of course you can pretend your photography is all about camera technique. But it's never really been the case.
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Absolutely, you can leave the camera to make the choices for you (SOOC JPEG) or you can take control yourself. If you don't believe it go to the Maritime Museum in Greenwich and visit the Ansel Addams exhibition. Not only is the work awesome but you'll realise how much PP he did.
 
All of my photos are edited.

This may be as just a little sharpening or correcting a wonky horizon or it could be a lot more.

Phil is spot on, it is something that has always happened.

It is just that in pre-digital days quite a few photographers did not do their own developing and printing so were probably unaware of any part of those processes. Now the processing is in our own hands and, for some it, appears to be some form of cheating. It is not.

I'd recommend trying a few free editors before you spend any money.

The best free, very simple, editor I know is Photoscape.

For one with many more features, have a look at GIMP, but there are many others, just Google for free photo editors.


Dave
 
markmullen said:
Assuming you get on with Lightroom, I never did.
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Have to agree with Mark. Having been a long time Photoshop user, I have never been able to get on with Lightroom. My recommendation for a beginner with photo editing software would be Elements. It's relatively cheap and shares many of the features that can be found in the full blown industry standard Photoshop. I believe there are likely to be more tutorials on Youtube for Elements than there are for non Adobe software.
 
I perfectly accept that it is entirely reasonable that a modicum of colour and exposure correction tends to be applied using some form of editing programme - rather like the film processors of old would do for you, but it is also essential to do as much as you can "in camera" first, or you'll spend all day faffing about with a computer, as I said, don't neglect the essentials, the editing programme can help get you out of a mess on many occasions, it's best not to have to resort to it.....

The original question referred to "how much has to do with editing" - to which my answer is "it has some bearing, but is not a substitute for learning the basics"....
 
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Thanks for all the replies and suggestions lads and lassies.

I suppose in an ideal world i would prefer not to have to resort to editing,but as everyone else is doing it,i better learn how to as well.

Thanks again.
 
Phil V said:
And all film photographs are processed
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Yes. Yes I know. I assumed the op was referring to digital photographs.

Thanks though.
 
norters said:
Yes. Yes I know. I assumed the op was referring to digital photographs.

Thanks though.
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He was

It was a throwaway remark aimed at those who see PP as a 'digital' issue.
 
Phil V said:
He was

It was a throwaway remark aimed at those who see PP as a 'digital' issue.
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From my experience there aren't a lot on here that fall into that category.

It's all good.
 
Organnyx said:
... but it is also essential to do as much as you can "in camera" first, or you'll spend all day faffing about with a computer, as I said, don't neglect the essentials, the editing programme can help get you out of a mess on many occasions, it's best not to have to resort to it.....

The original question referred to "how much has to do with editing" - to which my answer is "it has some bearing, but is not a substitute for learning the basics"....
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Um, yes, I think anyone who expects to learn how to produce a decent photo knows this and tries to achieve it. What gets me is that there are people who spend time learning to use a camera but can't be bothered to learn how to edit. The time spent 'faffing around on a computer' is just as important as the time spent faffing about with a camera. It's simply one part of the process, and every bit as essential as all the others.
 
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