Software How To

Ask a bunch of inexperienced photographers to name the easiest editing task they tackle, and most will likely give you a one-word answer: "Cropping." Yet, as you'll see in this eye-opening video from Landscape Photography University, incorrect cropping can spoil an image forever.

There’s no question that do-it-yourself photo books have captured the imagination of photographers, from pros to those who simply want to create a remembrance of a journey or to gather family photos. While just about every imaging software and online picture service, from iPhoto to Shutterfly, offers quick and easy bookmaking, there are some companies dedicated to serving the higher-end market, generally pros but also including every photographer who wants a stylish, custom-designed book. Software to help design the book is a key ingredient, as are options for book materials and binding. And in the end, the quality of the images reproduced, and the facility of ordering and making images ready, is what makes the bookmaking process a creative, fun project that will result in a book that will be cherished for many years.

DALL·E 2 from OpenAI (the folks who gave us ChatGPT) uses AI to convert plain language text strings into realistic images and art. We typed in “Digital camera that looks like a red pepper” and DALL·E 2 generated the image you see here (we added the Shutterbug nameplate). For lovers of imaging, DALL·E 2 is addictive. Read more to view a few other things DALL·E 2 generated for us, and learn how to begin turning your words in pictures.

We regularly turn to image-editing expert Nathaniel Dodson for quick tutorials that unlock Photoshop’s hidden secrets. In the five-minute video below you’ll learn about the “hidden Banana Tool” and four other tricks you never knew you needed when editing images.

We’ve discussed the relative merits of shooting Raw vs. JPEGs numerous times, and the consensus is the former delivers superior image quality, far more leeway during post processing, and a number of other benefits. The primary advantage of JPEGs is the significantly smaller file sizes, which can be important for certain applications.

Do you fully understand the difference between the Saturation and Vibrance tools that are common to most image-editing programs? Many photographers use both when processing images, and while they are quite similar, there are also important differences.