What difference does it make?
You can make a huge amount of difference to the finished image with the right editing software. Obviously you want to get the picture as "right" as you can inside the camera, but editing can work some miracles on top of that - especially if your lighting isn't perfect (which it is unlikely to be outside of the studio).
We're not saying that you can't get a great image straight from the camera - you can, and the more experienced you are the better it will be. We're saying you can work some real magic in editing, from making an image really pop, to special effects.
We would say that if you are going to edit your pictures it is better to shoot "raw" images rather than "compressed" such as jpeg. A raw image keeps all the information the camera saw, so in editing you can push something that was blacked out into some real texture which remained behing the darkness - assuming the image wasn't too far gone. You can also retrieve some highlights that may look blown (albeit no miracles will be granted here). A compressed file won't have kept that information, it won't be there fore the editing software to "find".
With editing you can correct and enhance so much. For example in the before and after screen capture from Lightroom to the right:
- White balance is corrected.
- The detail hidden by the shadows is now visible.
- The picture has so much more "punch".
We recommend that you start with Adobe Lightroom, which will cover all basic, and many advanced editing needs.
If you're getting into more complex editing you'll want to move onto using Adobe Photoshop in addition. These are really the "go to" editing programs. There is also open source software such as "the Gimp", which you might like to try. There are many other options around if you look a little.
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We would say that if you are going to edit your pictures it is better to shoot "raw" images rather than "compressed" such as jpeg. A raw image keeps all the information the camera saw, so in editing you can push something that was blacked out into some real texture which remained behing the darkness - assuming the image wasn't too far gone. You can also retrieve some highlights that may look blown (albeit no miracles will be granted here). A compressed file won't have kept that information, it won't be there fore the editing software to "find".
With editing you can correct and enhance so much. For example in the before and after screen capture from Lightroom to the right:
- White balance is corrected.
- The detail hidden by the shadows is now visible.
- The picture has so much more "punch".
We recommend that you start with Adobe Lightroom, which will cover all basic, and many advanced editing needs.
If you're getting into more complex editing you'll want to move onto using Adobe Photoshop in addition. These are really the "go to" editing programs. There is also open source software such as "the Gimp", which you might like to try. There are many other options around if you look a little.
We would say that if you are going to edit your pictures it is better to shoot "raw" images rather than "compressed" such as jpeg. A raw image keeps all the information the camera saw, so in editing you can push something that was blacked out into some real texture which remained behing the darkness - assuming the image wasn't too far gone. You can also retrieve some highlights that may look blown (albeit no miracles will be granted here). A compressed file won't have kept that information, it won't be there fore the editing software to "find".
With editing you can correct and enhance so much. For example in the before and after screen capture here from Lightroom:
- White balance is corrected.
- The detail hidden by the shadows is now visible.
- The picture has so much more "punch".
We recommend that you start with Adobe Lightroom, which will cover all basic, and many advanced editing needs.
If you're getting into more complex editing you'll want to move onto using Adobe Photoshop in addition. These are really the "go to" editing programs. There is also open source software such as "the Gimp", which you might like to try. There are many other options around if you look a little.