while the standard version goes for $699; that is a
lot of money in anyone’s book. There are two
other options for photographers, both of which
are covered in this book. The first is Adobe
Photoshop Elements, and the second is called
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (although from now
on, I will just call them Elements and
Lightroom). Elements is a cut-down version of
the full-blown Photoshop application. Elements
was created for the casual user who doesn’t need
the pixel editing power of the full version. The
interface is easier to understand and not as com-
plicated as the full version and the tools that
most people need to edit their images are avail-
able. That is not to say that the program is under-
powered or just meant for amateurs; it just doesn’t
have everything the full version does but it also
costs a whole lot less. Right now, the current ver-
sion ships for $99, and Adobe allows you to try
the application for 30 days before buying it.
Lightroom is an application created specifically
for photographers to import, sort, edit, and export
their images. Lightroom doesn’t actually make
any changes to your image until you output the
image. Instead, it keeps track of the changes you
want to make in a XMP file that is attached to
the image file. This allows you to come back to
the original file later and possibly process the
image a second, third, or fourth time. This is very
helpful, especially as technology moves forward
and the software developers create better noise
reduction and image enhancements. The image
in Figure 11-1 was processed in both Elements
and Lightroom. It has had the noise reduced, the
white balance adjusted, and the color and expo-
sure tweaked so that I could create the best possi-
ble image.There are many different types of file formats
used in digital imaging, the two main ones being
the JPEG file type and the RAW file type. The
first decision that you have to make is what for-
mat you use in the camera and why. Both the
JPEG and RAW file types have their plusses and
minuses and that first choice can make your life
easier later on. Once the files are loaded from
your camera into your computer, you can really
start to enhance the images. The first thing to do
is to use software to reduce the noise caused by
shooting at high ISOs and when using long shut-
ter speeds. Another postproduction fix that digi-
tal photography makes really easy is to adjust the
white balance so that the colors in the image
match the colors that were in the scene, at least
perceptually. It is also possible to easily adjust for
color and exposure in postproduction, which
allows certain latitude when actually shooting the
image. That is not to say that every photo prob-
lem can be solved on the computer, but there are
a lot of things that can now be done in less time
and at a lower cost than ever before.
SOFTWARE OPTIONS
The traditional darkroom filled with chemicals
and enlargers and red light bulbs has been
replaced in digital photography by computer
monitors and printers. This change means that
no longer are images developed in chemical baths;
they are now developed on the computer, and the
adjustments are now made in image-editing soft-
ware. The biggest and most complete image-edit-
ing application is Adobe Photoshop, but the cost
is just as large as the application, and it can actu-
ally cost more than your camera. The full version
of Adobe Photoshop Extended retails for $999,