When taking shots with your digital camera it's great fun, but there are always those shots you may find could do with a little enhancement to get them to perfection.
For example, a touch more colour to the sky, or that obstruction in the corner you didn't see when you clicked the shutter release, so here's a little something to think about...
I'd like to introduce you to a fun side of working with digital files - namely Digital Imaging.
For those who already know about it and maybe doing it, then that's great and I share your enthusiasm - keep up the good work! Digital Imaging - How it All Began for Me Well it all started back in 1999, I had been studying Photoshop 5 at the time and getting to grips with restoring my digital photos.
A framed picture had fallen from the wall and smashed, so I decided instead of buying a new picture, I would create one, and with my digital imaging skills, I created a montage consisting of four images, had it printed in poster size at a local printers, and now it hangs proudly on my wall! Another thing had also happened to me...
it was one day when I took my printed portfolio of my photos into work and showed them around...
just for the sheer excitement of showing my colleagues and friends what I had created.
Well this led to someone asking me if I could retouch a photo of theirs, then another person asked and another person asked, which was a great feeling to be able to help digitally restore photos for not just myself, but for my friends, family and colleagues as well.
In fact it helped me reap back a good percentage of my costs in learning Photoshop from the start! So looking on years later, I have now acquired my own ways of using this photo editing software, to not only digitally retouch photos, but also create montages using more than one image...
and I thought if I liked to do this, maybe you just might like to do the same.
So here's some points to get you started: Getting Started If you have a computer, and can load in some photo editing software, then you can open your digital photos, ready to start editing them.
Digital Camera Owners If you have a digital camera, it should come with a USB lead you can plug into your computer and download your images, in order to Open them in your image editing software.
You may have a Memory Card Reader - make sure if you purchase one it will take the make of your memory cards.
Film Camera Owners If you have a film or flatbed scanner you can scan in your negatives, slides or film prints.
If not, you would need to get your films transferred to CD from your local developers or chemist.
Ready To Start Editing Your Photos Now there are so many teaching methods to show you how to use your image editing software, like Photoshop, for example, and it's choosing a tutorial you can get to grips with right from the start.
The thing I found the most confusing when I was learning was this: tutorials quickly moving through tools and menus, until the task in question is completed.
They just tell you to use whatever tool and do whatever...
and that's it...
but I found the thing they didn't really get over fully is the reasoning behind using certain tools - the basic understanding of it.
Now I feel a round understanding is very important, because if you're like me, if you're doing something, you pick it up much quicker if you understand WHY you are doing it...
and this is what I found lacking in some teaching methods, in addition to them using tools that may not be necessary! So you need to choose a digital imaging video tutorial from someone who has experience of using photo editing software, and can show you their work, because through their experience you will learn the best ways of using the software tools, to get the best from your photos.
Now bearing in mind you would probably want to see a video with practical projects, including the obvious things you would want to know in retouching or editing your photos, like: - How to brighten an image - Remove a colour-cast - Size your photo to fit a frame - Crop out an unwanted background - Remove undesirable objects and red eye - Apply artistic effects - Create a multiple exposure effect...
for example.
And if you're new to it, don't worry, just make sure the tutorial shows you how to zoom in and pan around your image in order to be able to correct things in high magnification, which is important for accuracy when removing red eye, scratches or undesired objects.
Plus...
to get an even better understanding of using the basic selection tools, brush tools and layers palette in your image editing software - which are in my opinion the key essentials to know about when retouching your photos, an overview of these points, plus how to use them would be ideal.
As there are many versions, and newer versions of software coming out all the time, you don't have to have the most recent version of maybe Photoshop, as I have found the more basic tools that have been around in previous versions of the software, work better and fine-tune more than some of the automatic methods for retouching! Resolution of an Image Through my experience of digital imaging, retouching my photos, it is very important to know about resolution, because if you're digitally retouching an image and you're unaware of working in a lower resolution, you would be very disappointed if you had spent time on retouching your photo, had it printed maybe at a larger size, to find loss of picture clarity (jaggy edges or pixelation).
All digital photographic images comprise of resolution (what's known as pixels).
When you zoom into any photo at high magnification you can see little coloured squares...
these are the pixels that make up the data in your photo.
It is dependent on how many pixels there are in your image whether you are able to print your photo at a larger size than usual.
So if you're looking for a video tutorial to show you how to use your editing software, which includes features mentioned above, please go to link at the bottom of this article.
I wish you well with your digital imaging endeavours!