Reading Response: Chapter 5

              The Chapter 5 reading on “Editing an Image” was my favorite reading thus far. While I know my way around some of the tools in editing programs, I enjoyed going more in-depth into some tools that are essential to getting a good print. I appreciated the section of the chapter dedicated to curves, as I have found that to be the tool that I have used the most when editing a photograph. In the past, I have just moved the curve at random to eventually achieve the contrast of light and shadows that I desire. This chapter, however, helped to give me an understanding of how the curve works and how it relates to the image I am editing. For instance, I now know that the steeper the curve, the higher the contrast is in the picture. The chapter also showed how you can alter different curves to effect either the overall print or just a specific RGB layer.

                One useful tip that the chapter provided that I had never realized before is that you can select just a part of the image to alter it. The reading provided a great example of a picture in which a piece of pottery (of a white bird) was lightened so that it came out pure white, rather than gray. All the while, the rest of the image was not lightened so that the image didn’t become so washed out. By being able to alter certain aspects of the image while leaving others as they are (or altering them differently) the photographer has even more control over the finished product that is his/her printed photo.

                 Another great tip that I need to remember to do is to start your editing process by making the image the shape you want it to be. Cropping the image should come first, because that is when you decide which parts of the image are important to you. Following that is when you can adjust elements of the image. It doesn’t make sense to work on making adjustments to an image in which you may eventually be cropping a significant amount of.

               My only question in regards to the article is when it suggests you save a copy of the image and make sure that it is the copy that you edit, so as to preserve an original version of the photo. I wonder if this chapter was written pre-the concept of non-destructive editing in which the information of the original image is always in the edited version and can always be switched back to.