A “Hard” Look At Software
Post-processing images is an essential element of digital photography. RAW capture (you’re shooting in RAW format, aren’t you?) is only the beginning of the process, not yet as good as the image can be—that’s why it’s called RAW. If you’re shooting in JPEG format, you’re letting the camera decide a lot about how your image will look.
Now don’t get me wrong; it’s not just about “fixing it” on the computer. I prefer the term “optimizing.” When you sit down to edit, you still need to start with an image file that has good content and composition and is technically excellent.
There are many capable software options for image editing, ranging from relatively simple to highly complex. We tend to pick one, learn it and stay with it as long as it works for us. No program can really do it all, however, so most of us have a few stand-alone or plug-in programs that augment the capabilities of our primary editing software.
