Image
Editing
Famous
landscape photographer Ansel Adams is attributed with many quotes
about photography but one of my favourites is âThe
negative is comparable to the composerâs score and the print to its
performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.â
Adams
was able to look at a scene and then visualise how he would like to
portray it in a print but also had the technical know how to realise
that visualisation.
Adams,
devised the zone
system for photography, which enabled him to get the most out of a
negative when making a print.
Today,
photographers working in the digital world have life much easier than
Adams and his contemporaries when it comes to image processing.
Prints
are no longer as prolific as they once were but images are
everywhere.
To
get the best out of an image, it really ought to go through some
editing software for, to quote Adams again âDodging
and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in
establishing tonal relationships.â
These
days we can do so much more than simple dodging and burning but you
need the right software to do this.
Choosing
software involves many choices, such as cost, features, support, ease
of use, hardware
requirements, buy or rent. The list goes on. You may even want two
or more image editing programs to make up for features lacking in
just one program.
Hereâs a tip. When
looking for software (and there is a lot of it out there) either be
prepared to update your computer hardware or carefully check your
preferred softwareâs hardware requirements. Most software vendors
mention minimum requirements and recommended requirements. Minimum
is code for âit will work, but probably slowlyâ whereas
recommended means it should run quite well.
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