Photography Tip – Learn to process your photos
Written by Mike Cheliak on March 24, 2009 – 8:16 am -With most point and shoot cameras, you will have fairly good results using the factory settings for the various times you are shooting. Closer up portraits, scenery shots, quick capture photos and many other settings are all available at the turn of a dial. With DSLR cameras, there is a bit more to it as you have some powerful settings at your disposal. 
Shutter speed, ISO, aperture and more can all greatly determine the final photo you capture.
OK, there are lots of settings to learn. There is also the question of what to do after you have all those photos. Prior to the advent of digital photography, all the special FX, colour balancing, contrast masking and other photo enhancements were done in a darkroom. Now, we have powerful software to use as our “digital darkroom”. As a photographer, whether professional or amateur, you MUST learn to process your photos.
There are many proprietary (manufacturer provided) software applications for processing photos. My suggestion is to pick one, work with it, learn it and use it. Most professionals and serious amateurs use Photoshop. This is a serious piece of software and it isn’t cheap. You will pay over $600 US for it. While this is way too much to spend for the average person, it is the standard by which photo professionals operate.
KEY PROCESSING FUNCTIONS YOU SHOULD LEARN
Cropping and Resolution
When you take a photo, there is a lot to be said for learning how to compose the shot. This means to set the photo up to be as close to the way you want it to look when printed. That being said, there is always some extra space or elements that you may want to “cut” before printing. The size of your print will also impact on this. The “aspect ratio” of a 5×7 is different than an 8×10 or a 4×6. You will need to learn how to crop your photo to make the most of the print you are getting. The photo resolution standard for printing is 300PPI (Pixels per inch). This will ensure a nice, clear, vibrant print. If you are posting your photo online, you will want to crop to a resolution of 72PPI and go with a web standard of 640px x 480px. Most online applications like Facebook and MySpace will easily accept a photo of that size.
Brightness, Contrast, Exposure…
While your camera may do a decent job metering and adjusting exposure, it is not always “just right”. It is really important to learn how to manipulate your photo to raise certain levels. This will help to bring the light up in the background, reduce hot spots, balance the overall lighting of the photo and more. Many SW applications have auto settings for this but if you have the ability, try to manipulate these settings yourself. If you have access to adjust your Histograms, then take advantage! Read about how to adjust, play with a copy of your original photo and experiment.
Sharpening/Unsharp Masking
Digital photos in general are flat and somewhat soft. To the average person, this isn’t obvious and with the better cameras, it is not as obvious as it once was. Still, there is always room for a “little tweak”. Sharpening your photo means to make it appear more crisp and defined. The problem if you sharpen too much, you create weird edge effects and also add grain. Unsharp masking is something that has been around in photography for a long time. Some SW applications such as Photoshop have this feature and you can apply it with ease. It is the method of choice for photographers but you can always just use your SW to apply a sharper setting to your image.
Always work with a copy
Whatever you do with your photos, please do yourself a favour and create a copy set as soon as you add them to your computer. My suggestion is to have a removable hard drive that you keep a complete redundant backup of all your photos in their original state. Use your active copies to edit and order prints from. This way you are ensured of being able to go back and start from scratch if you need to.
While these tips are just the basics, they are a place to start. Learning the craft of photography also includes learning how to process your photos. You don’t need to be a computer programmer but you do need to learn how to be comfortable using your software choice. Practice…as they say, makes perfect!
Yours in Health and Happiness as always,
Mike C.
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