Photo Editing Intro Pt. 1

Photo editing isn't something new and digital. Ever since the beginning of photography we've been finding ways to make our pictures a bit more interesting than the original capture.

With film it's done with chemicals and different types of photographic paper. When you took your film to the lab the person printing your photos edited them as the negatives were printed.

You might not have realised it but adjustments were made to the brightness and colours as each neg passed through the enlarger or mini-lab. A lot of how good the prints looked were down to the skill of the operator doing your photos.

Professional labs were much more expensive at around £50 for a roll of 36 exposures because the person printing was a highly skilled operator who took loads of trouble to make sure they got the best from your negs. High street printing was cheaper but much more hit and miss because you never knew who'd be working on your images. If it was some poorly paid kid chances are they were never shown how to do it properly.

Now it's you who makes those adjustments which is great - because now you get to make the final interpretations of your images instead of your printer.