How often have you looked at a friend’s digital photos online and wondered why on earth they uploaded them exactly as they were taken? There’s red-eye making everyone look demonic, the main topic of the photo for some reason is pushed into one corner and a there’s a collection of out of focus images that could be almost anyone. It’s one of those very infuriating things that I know shouldn’t concern me, but it does!
So when it comes to uploading some of my photos to share with others, I’m afraid I do exactly the opposite. All computers have a simple program which will help you to cut down the photos or adjust the colour and brightness, but over the years I have become a dedicated Photoshop fan, to the extent that I won’t even publish one single photo without at least cropping and resizing it in Photoshop, and taking care that people don’t seem to look like they should be having Laser eye surgery to cure their their glaring red eyes.
People who use the programme daily would certainly laugh at my peculiar ways of producing results, but as I am totally self-taught and employ the program purely as a hobby, I am rather proud of what I can achieve by way of image manipulation, and recently I’ve made a number of multi-layer designs for acquaintance’s birthday greetings, album covers and the like, featuring diverse images – from a personalised bar room scene, to an specifically designed bookshelf to an incredible Laser eye light show effect.
But from the point of view of doing some basic editing before uploading a selection of photos to share with others, it’s so very simple to make a few changes and instead of uploading a hundred not very good photos, I’d far rather publish twenty that people will actually remark on because they are genuinely impressed with the image.
So, the first rule for me every time is to remove the red-eye from all of the people in the photo. There’s nothing worse than seeing a really good photo of friends, perfectly posed in a pleasant place, but everyone looks like they have been possessed due to the fiery red eyes, which as I mentioned previously, look like they would need Laser eye surgery to get rid of whatever obscure disease they have! If the image is quite a close-up one, then this point is also a good time to remove any major skin blemishes – I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve got rid of particularly horrid spots on my chin! You see – the camera really can lie!
Photos which have been affected by dry ice or something like that can usually be improved considerably by changing the levels of the image. Photoshop has a function named Auto Level Adjustment which almost every time will reduce the damage done by dry ice. It’s also simple to adjust the levels manually to lighten or darken the picture and alter the impact of a darkened room or an over-enthusiastic camera flash.
Depending on the background behind the subject of the photo, it’s also possible to remove unnecessary objects. We’ve all laughed at those photographs where a perfectly nice image of someone is no good because it appears that they are wearing a lampshade or a plant on their head. A little time and editing can easily erase the offending item and make the photo look much better. And your mate will thank you as they will avoid all those cheeky observations about what they decided to wear as a hat for the occasion!
It’s not always possible to get the subject matter of your photo just where you want within a photo, especially in a situation with a moving subject, so if that’s the case, then cut the photo so that the unwanted areas no longer exist. Instead of, for example, the runner who looks like he is trying to disappear off the edge of the photo, or the fireworks or Laser eye light show appearing only in the top half of the picture, the subject will end up as the focal subject of the picture and people will wonder how you got such an great shot.
Naturally, a professional photographer will do so much more with a photograph before he or she is happy to share it with the world, but for an amateur the few actions above will help your photos look far better than many of your mates photos. And for the most simple of these tasks, there should be software loaded on your computer which should be able to do the job, without having to invest in expensive programs like Photoshop.
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