DAY 291

PHOTOGRAPHY 101

Finishing Your Work

SOFTWARE TECHNIQUES AND FINAL TOUCHES

More than likely you use a digital camera. If you do, you can easily add some final touches to make your photographs even better.

A popular photo manipulating software is Adobe Photoshop; however, it isn’t necessary to purchase expensive software to make basic changes to your digital photograph files. Most computers come with photo-editing software installed, so check your computer documentation to see what is available.

The first adjustment you can make is the brightness of your photograph. Adjust the brightness controls until the photo looks balanced.

Contrast is sometimes part of the brightness controls, so adjust this until the dark areas seem dark enough to you without losing the detail in those areas. This will add a bit of clarity to your photos and take care of the flatness that results from overexposure.

Color balance is another important adjustment. Most often this adjustment is required when your photograph is indoors where there are fluorescent or incandescent light sources that cause yellow, blue, or green casts to your photos.

Refer to your photo-editing software’s instruction manual, or purchase a basic manual pertinent to your software before continuing to explore editing software. It’s very easy to get caught up in special effects and lose sight of the basic functions that will enable you to produce finely refined photographs. —CWN