An important part of the photography process takes part after the image is taken. Uploaded to a computer, Photographs can now be edited in software such as Photoshop and GIMP to increase their quality and fix problems. I always used to try and get the perfect photo whilst shooting, but I realised that sometimes, no matter how good the lighting conditions are, this is rarely possible. I started to edit my photos using Photoshop, but after losing the disk and changing computers, I have moved onto free software such as Pixlr (the online Editor is the free equivalent of Photoshop and is perfect). I don't tend to heavily edit my photographs however as I still believe in the importance of the initial image captured. I like to edit my images to best represent the conditions of the day and what I remember to the place to look like in person.
Take this for example -
This is a photo I took out in the Mojave desert before heading into Antelope Canyon. Using Pixlr, I have increased the contrast slightly, increased the saturation to reflect the colours that weren't picked up as well by the camera due to exposure, and straightened the image so that the horizon is more in line with the bottom and top edge of the photo. I use the 'Levels' bar as an instant starting point for most of my edits (Will discuss in more depth in a future post). I could have cropped the image to further change it, but decided the combination of the vast desert and sky worked better as a larger image. Instantly, within five minutes of 'tinkering' (technical term) I believe the image looks a lot better.