Editing Your Photographs

So you've taken the digital plunge and now you have lots of images on your new digital camera. Unfortunately, they don't quite look like you hoped for when you view them on your computer or print them out. Its very discouraging when this happens but don't let it get you down. When you send your film images to be printed they are tweaked by the processor, your digital images have no such tweaking done when you see them the first time. The tweaking must be done by you.

The easiest way to tweak your images is you use Levels. Levels lets you adjust the light/tonal range of your image quickly and easily in many digital darkroom (photo editing) programs. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are two of the most common home editing programs so I have used them as an example of the Levels process.

Introduction to Levels

In addition to levels, you should take some time to become familiar with the concept of layers. Once you have those two ideas down a world of possibilities opens up in the editing of your images. From soft focus to spot color, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Photo © Liz Masoner licensed to About.com, Inc.