Photo Editing Done Cheap

Most websites and magazines will talk about Photoshop as being the tool to edit photographs. Unfortunately Photoshop costs US$699, which is out of reach for most people. Adobe does have Photoshop Elements, which is a much less expensive, yet very capable scaled down version of Photoshop.

Personally I use Gimp, which is an open source photo editing software. As far as photography editing goes, Gimp has all of the capabilities of Photoshop that I need, and best of all, it’s free!

The majority of the tasks that I require for photo editing are features of both Gimp and Photoshop:

  • Dodging and burning
  • Layers
  • Cloning and Healing
  • Curves adjustments

The interface of Gimp may take some getting used to if you’re familiar with Photoshop, but once you’ve learned to navigate it, it is a very powerful tool. Download it and try it out for yourself.

Stock Photography and Modeling

Stock photography is when you take commercial photographs, but where there is no one customer commissioning you for the photographs. The photographs are typically placed on a stock photography website, such as iStockPhoto, and sold to many customers. Customers will use these images for their websites, for magazine ads, etc.

A typical stock photo you’ve probably seen is of a pretty young woman answering a helpline, which would be used on many websites for their “support” web page. It could also be pictures that convey business concepts, such as teamwork, frustration, meetings, etc., or it could just be a picture of a couple lying on a beach, which would be used by a travel agency.

One of the premiere photographers in Stock photography is Yuri Arcurs. He has great tips in the form of videos on his YouTube channel. He not only shows tips for the photographer, but useful information for models who want to do stock photography.

Take a look at this video, and you can see his other videos from the same YouTube page.

Food Photography

A plate of food at your favourite restaurant may look and smell very enticing when the plate is placed before you, but it doesn’t always seem as appealing when you take a picture of your plate. In order to compensate for the lack of smell and taste, it is tricky to get a good shot of food. Here are some tips for taking a great picture of food.