Digital photos have become abundant in today's online-oriented world.
Processing digital photos is possible for anyone with a computer. Most computers come with a digital image processing program, and other options are available free or for purchase online. Learn a few basic principles of digital imagery to process your own pictures.
Brightness and Contrast
Brightness, the level of white in a photo, and contrast, the difference between two tones, affect the look of an image the most. By increasing or decreasing the brightness, you can make a photo that is too dark or light acceptable in appearance. If the light is too low, however, the photo may not be salvage. By adjusting the contrast, you adjust the "harshness" of a photo. An image with maximum contrast is difficult to look at, while one with minimum contrast is mostly gray. Use your creative intuition when adjusting contrast to bring out details but not blow out the photo.
Red-eye Reduction
Leaving red-eye in a photo is a distracting feature and may not be acceptable in commercial work, such as portraits. Many image programs have red-eye reduction features that can remove the red-eye glow that results from flash photography. Often, a program will have you zoom in to circle the areas of red eye, and the program will reduce the effect automatically.
Cropping and Image Size
"Cropping" is a photography term that means cutting out undesirable portions of a photo. It typically is done to remove distractions or re-frame the subject. A side effect of cropping is that it can reduce the pixel size of an image. Typically, this reduction goes unnoticed when images are viewed on a computer screen. A screen normally has fewer than 1,500 pixels on either its length or width, while a normal photo has more than 2,000 pixels on each side. To save on memory space, resize each photo so it is at most 2,000 pixels in either length or width. This is best for storage, but may not be desirable for printing or high-quality commercial work.
Compression
Some programs offer different rates of "compression," which is the quality of the saved image file. Compressing a photo is permanent and cannot be undone. In general, you should always save photos with the least amount of compression and at the highest level of quality. This lets you keep a high-quality original image and produce copies of the image without trying to bring it back to the original quality.
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