Bob Crum

Photo editing? Ugh! Forget it! I'd rather be fishing, or playing Bunco, is a refrain I often hear. Besides, some say, I get it right in the camera. HA! Photos don't go straight through the lens directly to the memory card. A camera is a computer upon which you mount a lens. From the solid-state sensor, pixels are processed by the camera's computer run by program algorithms installed by the camera's engineers. Hence, no image straight out of the camera (SOOC) is as good as it can be.

Photographer Rick Berk wrote: "Post-processing is not a crutch. If I look at an image on the back of my camera and say "I'll fix it later," then it's already a bad image, and no amount of processing is going to correct it. I am a staunch proponent of shooting RAW, for many reasons. I know full well that the camera can have problems handling a scene with a lot of dynamic range, such as a sunset. I use optical filters on my lens to help with that, but there are still times when the image out of the camera fails to capture the image I saw with my eyes." Amen!

Post-Processing is an essential part of digital photography. Avoidance is futile! Internet search engines will present several 'free' photo editors. GIMP leads the pack. Though free often means editing limitations and skimpy options, most may be sufficient for "basic" photo editing. Compare features and check reviews!

Depending on your budget, several robust photo editing programs are available. Adobe Lightroom (LR) and Photoshop (PS) are the predominate photo editors but available only by a $9.99 a month subscription. Other editors include DxO Optics Pro 10, On1 Photo RAW, Capture One, Corel PaintShop Pro, Topaz Studio 2, Skylum Luminar and ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate to mention a few. Best one? Up to you. Select a program with preferred features and tickles your toes.

I subscribe to Adobe's Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, also have Photoshop Elements 14 (PSE), DxO Optics Pro 10, Topaz Studio 2 and On1 Photo RAW installed on my photo editing computer. I also have DxO NIK plugins installed in LR, PSE 14, and PS. Each program has distinctive attributes & benefits.

After a shoot, photos are uploaded on the computer. I then import to LR to begin post-processing. Remember, RAW editing is non-destructive-doesn't harm the original. Don't like how it's going, click reset and restart. From LR, I transfer the photos as a tiff image to PSE14 where Imagenomic Noiseware and NIK plugins reside. The first step, if necessary, is reduce image noise. Then I initiate the NIK magic sauce. Wonderful for my specialty: Mermaid boudoir photography. Color Efex Pro 4 (with custom recipes) and Viveza 2 are two plugins used extensively. NIK's UK-Lead technology rocks! Note, unless images are imported in PSE14 as a "smart object," editing alters pixels. Can't reset and begin anew. Resizing the photo according to the client's requirements is the last step.

Remember, RAW files are large. At a recent private event, I shot 576 RAW images which equals 13.9 gigabytes of data. Hence, a capable computer is essential. My custom-built dedicated editing computer has a 1TB SSD "C" drive, 32GBs of RAM and a 500MB SSD scratch drive. Less RAM and smaller "C" drive will suffice, it'll just make photo editing somewhat slower.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the dreaded learning curve that accompanies any new computer program. Did I hear a groan? Persevere! You'll relish the glorious rewards.

Photo of the week is Brush Creek's lower falls, north of Kernville.

Send comments, suggestions or questions to: focusonphotography@earthlink.net