The world of digital photography makes it easy for anyone to create beautiful and artistic photographs with basic photo editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop, Nero Ultra, Photo Elements and Paint Shop Pro. These applications allow both the novice and the pro to edit their photos. Below are several tips to help make editing your photos a breeze:
Brighten it up
A bright sunny day does not necessarily result in perfect photos. Bright sunshine can result in washed out faces, shiny foreheads, light-eating shadows and an overall lack of definition. Similarly, too little light can result in dark, dull photographs that lack luster.
Tweaking the brightness and contrast of digital photos can bring out details and color by adding and removing light from your image, bringing it back to a more natural tone. Brightness and contrast controls can be found in most image editing software packages.
Most image editing software packages provide several different ways for adjusting brightness and contrast:
- Quick Fix
- Auto Contrast
- Auto Levels
- Adjust Lighting
- Adjust Brightness and Contrast (manually)
Quick Fix: Many image editors have a "quick fix" command that provides an easy way to edit most aspects of an image. You can adjust brightness, color, focus, contrast, flash and backlighting. Take your editing further and crop or rotate the image to draw the focus into the heart of the subject matter. The quick fix option gives you complete control over your image and allows you to preview your image with changes before accepting it, thus letting you see if the adjustments are having the effect that you wanted before you commit to the image.
Auto Contrast: Many image editing softwares, including Paint and Adobe products, have an "auto contrast" or "automatic contrast enhancement" command. Choose this command and your image is automatically adjusted using existing color and brightness levels.
Auto Levels: Auto Levels will automatically adjust the relationship of the tones. Additional tonal adjustments can be made with manual adjustment.
Adjust Lighting: You can find special commands to adjust for backlighting (images that are illuminated primarily from behind) or fill flash (to provide additional front illumination). Use the "adjust lighting" feature to make your photo warmer (more red) or cooler (more blue). You can also brighten dark shadows without affecting the bright areas of your image.
Adjust Brightness and Contrast (manually): You can use your image editor’s manual brightness and contrast dialog box to finely adjust your photo. Enter values, or move sliders and controls, to change the brightness and contrast. Manual adjustments take time and finesse. As with any art, practice makes perfect. Take your time and work with the image until you are satisfied with the outcome.