New to photography - benefits of editing??

Spacy · Feb 21, 2007

I don't understand a lot about editing and don't know what the benefits of doing it are. I have an editing program but the only thing I use it for is to crop or make it black & white/sepia. I don't really know how to do anything else in that program and don't see how it can benefit me. I'd love some feedback on this.

Big Mike · Feb 21, 2007

Well, if you don't see how it will benefit you...then you probably don't need to do it.

If you can get the results that you are after, while shooting or with simple edits...then that is great.

Some things that are commonly tweaked are things like contrast, saturation, sharpness. It doesn't have to be special effects...just things that make the shot look more like how it looks to the human eye...or just how we wish it to look.

Spacy · Feb 21, 2007

Hmm.... I thought about reading some tutorials.

Oh, I'd like to add that in no way was I trying to say that my shots don't need any editing. lol I'm far from being good. ha ha ha

What editing programs would you suggest?

EOS_JD · Feb 21, 2007

Photoshop Elements may do well for a beginner but to get the most from your images there's only one choice. Photoshop is the king of kings of editing programs.

Spacy · Feb 21, 2007

Maybe I should check it out. I have paint shop pro X. Like I said, I only use it to change the colors of the photo.

Are there several versions of photoshop? Which one should I get?

Big Mike · Feb 21, 2007

The full versions of Photoshop is a very big and powerful program...it's also several hundred dollars. The latest version is CS2, or maybe they are up to version CS3.

Photoshop Elements is a like a 'lite' version of Photoshop. It should do anything that you would need to get started.

I don't know anything about Paint Shop Pro X...I've heard of the PSP software...I just don't know it very well. It can probably do a lot of the things that you might want to do.

Also, there is a free down loadable program called Gimp. I haven't tried it...but plenty of people here use it.

What ever you get...finding some tutorials would be a good idea. Or maybe look for a book on the subject...there are plenty of books on Photoshop etc. Once you have a better idea of what you are dealing with, we would be more than happy to help you out with specific questions or problems that you might have.

Spacy · Feb 21, 2007

Tell me more about the free one. lol Anything with the word free in it automatically gets my attention. ha ha ha

Thanks for your help, Mike.

Icon72 · Feb 21, 2007

If you aren't a professional or at least a very serious photographer Photoshop is way more than you'll ever need in my opinion. If you just want to do some photo editing to make some of your photos much better looking, Photoshop Elements is plenty of program and it's about $85 or so. I also use PhotoImpact because it's the first editing program I bought years ago so I am familiar with it. PhotoImpact can make all the brightness, contrast, saturation, cropping edits as well. You can get older versions for around $30-$40. I still use version 6 but it's up to version 12 now.

If I were you I think I would start clean and go with Gimp . Just do some research, seek out Gimp tutorials and, as with any of these programs, practice, practice, practice. It's the only way to really learn anything.

As far as benefits of editing take a look at THIS thread to get an idea of what can be done. There are a couple of examples there. You will see a lot of before and after shots as you peruse the forums as well.

Good luck to you.

Spacy · Feb 21, 2007

Thanks Icon. I'm not a professional and don't want to spend a lot of money for an editing program. This is simply a hobby of mine. I appreciate your input.

Icon72 · Feb 21, 2007

No problem. People get convinced that if they want to edit photos they need Photoshop. Sure it's the industry standard but there are many much cheaper alternatives for the home hobby photographer that can do a lot more than people think.

Spacy · Feb 21, 2007

I hardly edit photos at all. I think it's mostly because I just don't know how. I am downloading Gimp right now.

markc · Feb 21, 2007

Just learning a few basic things can make a huge difference, like levels and color balance.

The_Traveler · Feb 22, 2007

Spacy said:
I don't understand a lot about editing and don't know what the benefits of doing it are. I have an editing program but the only thing I use it for is to crop or make it black & white/sepia. I don't really know how to do anything else in that program and don't see how it can benefit me. I'd love some feedback on this.

Taking a picture with a film camera involves the following steps for a skilled photographer:

1:choosing the camera
2:choosing the lens
3:choosing the film
4:deciding what picture to take
5:developing the film and adjusting the devlpment to allow for conditions and artistic ideas
6:choosing the paper to print on
7

rinting the picture, adjusting the exposure to allow for conditions and artistic ideas

Most casual photographers do only step 1,4

Taking a picture with a digital camera involves the following steps for a skilled photographer:

1:choosing the camera
2:choosing the lens
3:choosing the 'speed' and the conditions of the sensor
4:deciding what picture to take
5:editing for color, contrast, editing the specific content
6:choosing the paper to print on

(the need for step 7 is eliminated by the amount of control available in step 5)
The casual user may do only step 1 and step 4

Creation of an image involves all these steps and the more advanced you want to be, the more steps you will want to be in control of.

Peacemaker636 · Feb 22, 2007

The GIMP is definitely a very powerful freeware program. It has anything you'd ever need for simple adjustments. I actually like how the curves work better in the GIMP than in PS. However, the GIMP doesn't support PS actions or brushes, so I have both on my computer.

The GIMP should be plenty (it has pretty much everything PS has minus a few filters, but most of PS' filters are useless anyway).