Theres no doubt that the development of camera technology has gone hand in hand with advances in image editing software. And with the right software you can turn your photos into more memorable images or create strange and wonderful effects that can be simply stunning.
The advantages of learning to use image editing software are many and varied, including:
Adjusting the exposure of your shots
Often the sky will be too bright or the foreground too dark. Image editing software can help you bring the two together so that everything is more defined and more evenly exposed.
Cropping to make a better picture
Perhaps you took a photo in haste and didn't see that car bumper peeking over the right edge. You want to get rid of it and an image editing programme will let you do just that, cropping the photo to make a better composition.
Removing pylons and other clutter
Another thing you didnt notice was those pylons cutting across the picture. You'd like to get rid of those too. A simple platform like Adobe Photoshop allows you to cut and replace unwanted parts of a photograph.
You have three bracketed photos that all have their merits
You want to combine three photos and take the best parts of each. The sky looks great in one, the foreground sharp and well exposed in another, and the third is a mix between the two that highlights some areas where the other two don't. You can combine the images to create one, perfectly exposed picture that is balanced and attractive with image editing software.
You want to add some special effects
You can turn your photo into a painting or drawing. You can add different textures. You can make it look like an old sepia style photo from days gone by. You can cut something out of one photo and put it into another.
Nowadays, with such advanced image editing software, the variations and opportunities to experiment are almost endless.
If you want to see how editing software can transform an image take a look at our short video here. http://www.petedaviesphotography.co.uk/blog/spee-retouching/
How to learn image editing
If you are serious about your photography you will more than likely be shooting in RAW format by now which allows you greater scope to edit images with todays advanced software.
Learning how to use that software and becoming good at it, is another matter. The interface of many packages at first sight can seem daunting and difficult to fathom.
The industry standard is still Adobe when it comes to software that can do the most and offers the flexibility that professional designers and photographers need. You can learn a certain amount from a book or online but getting on a course run by someone who uses it on a daily basis is probably the best option.
We offer one to one tuition on both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom that will give you the chance to learn at your own pace and try out practical exercises. There are no manuals to trawl through and you can ask as many questions you want.
If you want to learn how to transform your pictures you can fhttp://www.petedaviesphotography.co.uk/training/software-training/)
