5 tips for editing and creating beautiful digital photo projects

Use Photoshop

Photoshop is a tool used by many graphic designers to create cool designs.  It is very powerful but many of the features are easy to use and there are many tutorials available online. Using Photoshop for the first time can be intimidating but it is worth the effort to learn. Photoshop makes it easy to resize, enhance, recolor and edit images.  It also supports batch processing of images which can be a big time saver.

Take Better photos

Many community colleges and other schools offer basic photography classes that can help improve your skills.  Take an evening class or check with your local photography store and see what they offer.  Read the manual that came with your camera and check the web for tutorials.  Your projects will turn out better if you start with better images.

 

Share Your Work and Get Feedback

So you created what you think is a great photo project, now what?  Share it online with other moms and photographers.  Get feedback and learn how to make your next one better.  Join a community like flickr and your images. Check out other people’s work and get inspiration.  You can also use Picasa to share images though Google. Once you are happy with your work put it on display. Get it printed through sites like Shutterfly.com, Smashing Magazine and frame it.

Use free photo tools

If you don’t want to invest in a tool like Photoshop consider using one of the many online photo editors that are available.  They make it easy to make simple changes to your images like filters, resizing and removing blemishes. Many of these tools also integrate with Facebook and flickr to make sharing your photos easier. There are` also free tools you can download like Picasa from Google. These free tools are a good place to start with photo projects but when you want to do something more advanced you may find them to be somewhat limited.

www.picnik.com

www.phixr.com/

www.fotoflexer.com

Get a Better Camera

The cheap point and shoot camera you bought at Wal-Mart has limited capabilities and can’t zoom and focus as well as a more expensive digital SLR camera.  If you want really nice photos you will have to invest some money to get a better camera that can capture images at high speed and in a wide range of lighting conditions.  A more expensive camera will not automatically make your pictures better you will also need to take the time to learn how to use the functions of the camera.  Getting a tripod and several lenses for different types of shots will be helpful as well.

I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Adobe blogging program, making me eligible to receive a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

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