Quite often, many basic editing tasks can be done in the camera itself after the picture is taken including some simple cropping, removing red eye from flash photos, and rotation from landscape to portrait and vice versa. For many people, this is about all that they require anyway before printing out their snapshots, and this keeps things very easy and simple. But to start to realize the potential that digital photography puts in the hands of the average person, a photo editing software program will be needed where you upload your photos from the camera to your computer and then open them in the program. You can then begin to perform all kinds of editing tasks including more advanced cropping, change the file size or format, adjust color saturation, contrast and brightness, and apply special effects.
You can learn to make amazing enhancements to any photograph using the tools and functions available in Photoshop. The following are just a few of the improvements you can make to people pictures. Whiten stained teeth, Remove unsightly scars, Smooth age wrinkles, Clear up acne, Remove blemishes, Double chin removal, Fill in bald spots by adding hair, Open closed eyes, Remove tattoos, Hide body piercings, and even Change eye color.
Remember your audience. If your photos are destined for Web pages, don’t worry about minor flaws; get the dark-and-light balance right and make sure your pictures are mostly close-ups. If your photos are going to be printed at 8-inches by 10-inches or larger, take the time to smooth out the flaws. Make brutal crops, too. No one will know later that you took out the telephone pole alongside Billy’s head. Distractions are just as annoying in photographs as they are in real life.
Sharpening is one of the most impressive transformations you can apply to an image since it seems to bring out image detail that was not there before. What it actually does, however, is to emphasize edges in the image and make them easier for the eye to pick out – while the visual effect is to make the image seem sharper, no new details are actually created. The first step in sharpening an image is to blur it slightly. Next, the original image and the blurred version are compared one pixel at a time. If a pixel is brighter than the blurred version it is lightened further; if a pixel is darker than the blurred version, it is darkened. The result is to increase the contrast between each pixel and its neighbors. The nature of the sharpening is influenced by the blurring radius used and the extent to which the differences between each pixel and its neighbor are exaggerated.
In one wedding photograph, the groom stood still at the bottom of stone steps to an historic dwelling, his hand extended towards his bride, who slowly moved down the steps toward her groom. My six deliberate ‘clicks’ of the shutter created an airy, surreal picture of the wedding couple. Depending on the speed of the moving subjects, the shutter can be held down in rapid fire mode or each exposure can be meticulously choreographed: 1) each subject deliberately positioned in the frame, 2) one ‘click’ of the shutter, and 3) repeat steps 1 and 2 to the total number of multiple exposures you set in your camera.
While you can easily enough create the effect of black and white what about things like drop shadows, watermarks, blurring the background and even soft focus your pictures. Photoshop is the perfect tool to be able to do this. Drop Shadows: This is an excellent effect to use on text, logos, and graphic art. Watermark: It is easy with Photoshop to create a custom watermark on your photos. Soft Focus: Soft focus is a popular effect used by professional photographers for years to enhance portraiture. Blur the Background: Pictures of people and other objects will really stand out when the background is blurry. Photoshop allows you to only blur certain areas of the image while leaving other areas in perfect focus. Frame: There are unlimited ways you can put frames around your photos in Photoshop.
Starting up a new photography business isn’t just fun and games. You’re going to need to do is advertise. You’ll have to print out business cards, take out ads in magazines and newspapers and more or less get the word out that you exist. If you’re hoping to break into the field taking photos for a magazine like Playboy, then you’re going to have to first get some private work photographing models in order to submit these photos to the magazine itself. Before you do that though, you’re going to have to write to the magazine for permission to send photos. Most publications do not accept unsolicited material.
