What is Digital Editing?
Digital images has led millions of people to take pictures and videos that they can then upload to their personal computers. That opens up many options for digital photo and video editing. This article outlines the basic operations involved in digital editing.
Cropping and Sizing Photos
Even the most basic photo editing programs, such as those that come preloaded on many computers or as free programs included with cameras or printers, include options for cropping and sizing. Cropping involves selecting a portion of the image to be kept and discarding the rest of the original image. Cropping is useful for selecting the subject from a larger field, such as choosing a person from out of a crowd. But it also allows users to alter the framing of their images by removing the space surrounding their subject.
Most photo editing programs also allow users to alter an image's size. In some cases, sizing an image is done in conventional units (inches or centimeters). That can be useful when preparing an image for printing, especially if the final image is to be framed or placed in a photo album. Image sizing is also useful in determining optimal image quality and file size. Shrinking high resolution photos allows them to be sent via e-mail or to be posted to Web sites for online viewing.
Image Properties and Modifications
Altering an image's contrast (the difference between the darkest and lightest areas of the image), along with its brightness, can help to provide a clearer, more detailed image. This is sometimes useful to correct problems caused by automatic settings on the camera.
Color can also be adjusted via digital editing, either to achieve accurate color reproduction or to produce stylized images that are tinted a specific color.
Most photo editing programs contain some tools that allow for images to be modified. Clone tools may be useful if somebody wants to create an identical portion of the image somewhere else on the canvas (such as giving a friend two heads). Clone tools are useful for correcting scans of old photographs by fixing scratches and dust spots.
Some of the more advanced programs will also include special filters for sharpening of an image that is slightly out of focus or correcting "red eye" caused by direct flash. Although it is always beneficial to start with the best possible image, these tools are useful at preserving images with minor imperfections.
Video editing
Digital editing also refers to editing video clips. Simple video-editing software comes installed on most new computers (iMovie on Macs, MovieMaker on Window). Such programs allow users to put together clips from different videos, cut clips to shorten them, add transitions and titles between clips, even add music or voice overs.
Once the editing is complete, users can export their videos to different formats, from large, high-quality DVD videos to small, low-quality movies suitable for posting to YouTube or sending via e-mail.
Filters
Many photo and video editing programs are loaded with filters that can be applied to enhance or alter an image's look. Those filters can either be preset or variable according to the user's preference. Some filters attempt to reproduce the look of a certain type of photograph, such as one shot on black and white film, one processed to have a sepia tone, or one shot on high grain film.
Other filters are designed to give an image a stylized look, sometimes even making it appear to have been produced with colored pencils, paint, markers, or charcoal.
These filters give photographers and videographers a great deal of freedom in producing entirely original images that may, in the end, bear little resemblance to the original.
File Formats
Most photo-editing applications allow users to export photo files to common file types, such as JPEGs, TIFFs, or PDFs.
Video-editing applications may have fewer options for export. Apple's iMovie allows for export to Quicktime (.mov), for example, while MovieMaker allows for export to WindowsMediaVideo (.wmv).
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