Digital Photo Retouching Can Do Wonders

Digital cameras hit the market in early 90s. Before that time, film cameras were used to take photographs. Before the advent of digital cameras, photo retouching was done with the help of paint, ink, and joining negative or photos in the darkroom. Let us know more about photo retouching and its application.

Photo retouching, as the name clearly suggests, is a technique allowing you to "touch" different parts of a photo with many different tools to make the picture look better. The interesting thing is that the edited version of the image looks a lot better than the original version. The most popular software that is used for image editing presently is known as Adobe Photoshop. The app is easy to install and use on a personal computers.

If you have a fast computer, you can retouch your images from the comfort of your home. But you must have the basic know-how of personal computers and image editing software, especially Photoshop. If you never used the app in your life, be ready to put in some time and effort to learn it.

People take photos at weddings and other events when they get together with their friends or family members. Once the photos are ready, they may send the photos to an image editing professional to get them retouched. With this technique, dress colors can be changed and other minor flaws can be fixed with just a few clicks.

Aside from this, businesses also use the service of an image editing pro to get the images of their products retouched. For instance, image taken of a red pair of shoes can be retouched to change the color to blue, white, or pink. There is no need to take photos of each pair of shoes to upload on the website. Instead, one image can be taken and edited for change of colors or design. This saves plenty of time and money.

Almost every type of business ranging from online auctions, tourism, leisure and social media, perfect images carry a lot of importance. The use of images is quite common in showbiz industry as well. That is why the photo retouching technique is used extensively in the here and now. Professional photo editing pros have their own shops where they offer editing services for a few dollars per image. Some even offer trail services to assure that clients that they are good at what they do.

If you are new to photo retouching, you can learn this technique or get some of your photos retouched by a pro to figure out what the technique can do for you.

You can contact Color Experts for Photo Retouching Color Experts offer a variety of image editing services, such as Photo Retouching, Color Correction, and Image Manipulation.

Is Photo Retouching Good Or Bad?

Photo retouching has received lots of criticism. They say that manipulating images is bad. Nothing can be called perfect in this world. This article is about finding out whether the act of photo retouching is something that we should appreciate. Read on.

Whether this technique is commendable or condemnable, one thing is certain: it is rising in popularity on a daily basis. Maybe we believe that it is possible to make things look perfect, so to speak.

Deep inside we know that the manipulated images are not real anymore, but we still get them edited. This is especially more true about the showbiz industry. In the same way, marketers get the product images edited to make them look more appealing.

Advertisers, especially online advertisers, have a history of objectionable behavior. We are exposed to advertising on a daily basis whether we are at home watching TV or in the market shopping for our favorite stuff. Everybody knows that the pictures of celebrities that can be seen on the Internet are not as real as they look. Each image is edited and retouched before it goes on a website or blog. Similarly, every product photo goes through the same procedure.

Just like the use of make-up very common nowadays, working on images or photos on a computer is also all the rage. The purpose is to make them look better. The aim is not to deceive anyone.

So, there is no harm in getting pictures touched a little bit just to make them more beautiful. The next time you take some photos of you, make sure you go over them to find out ways to make them better. At times, you will find that you just need to increase the sharpness, brightness or contrast of the pictures. With the art of digital photo retouching, you can do a lot of things. For instance, you can remove the shadow from your face in a photo. Sometimes, just cropping a photo a bit can change it considerably.

In the future, hopefully, the technology won't be misused and will be used for creative purposes only. This art is not bad itself. The need is to use it for good purposes only.

You can use this technique by yourself provided you have access to a computer with an editing app installed on it. If you don't have these tools on your disposal, you had better get in touch with a professional designer.

You can contact Color Experts for Photo Retouching Color Experts offer a variety of image editing services, such as Photo Retouching, Color Correction, and Image Manipulation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8822317

The Challenges in the Business of Art

There are so many things about the business side of art I don't know about. Many artists, galleries, collectors, and dealers emphasize in its importance, while others want to completely dismiss the subject. I am not sure where I stand yet in this subject, so I need your help. What is your side of the story? I've been reading about this in books, blogs, and articles and finding all kinds of mix-messages about how to present yourself as an artist and how to present your art for people to get to know it and buy it. "Don't put your art for sale!" "You need to let people know it is for sale!" "Art is about creativity not money!" "The artist needs to eat too!" "You can't consider yourself a professional artist if you do this just for fun and leisure!"... It gets very confusing at times and honestly I don't have a straight answer or position in the subject.

My wife, who is my greatest supporter, is constantly motivating me and helping me to get the word out about my art. I remember when we visited a gallery in Miami Beach a few years ago. I was drooling with all the wonderful art I was looking at from some of my favorite artists. I've only seen these pieces online and being in front of them was just a surreal experience. At that point I was still struggling with the idea of showing my art. To make this story short, after hesitating for a moment I showed pictures of my work to the gallery director. His reaction was very interesting. He removed his glasses in disappointment when he knew all of my pieces were in a corner of my living room and said to me with his card at hand: "Whenever you want to make something of your life let me know".

Shortly after I had my first show, one of my pieces was requested to be in several shows in Argentina, and a commissioned piece ended in Paris. So it began! I am still trying to figure this out as other pieces are in other parts of the world and published (although someone in a very demeaning way called the books paid 'catalogs' I feel fine when I see the fruit of this). I was afraid that getting involved in the business of art could affect my creativity and suck the fun out of it. It is disappointing at times to see people making tons of money with artwork that makes no sense to me (art is subjective anyway) and I bet they feel fine about it. This is a lot of work, a lot of pressure, and a lot of sacrifice to have someone tell you that your work is not "all that." I keep pushing, learning, growing, and trying to figure this out.

I try looking back to some artists in history: Dalí, Picasso, Warhol, Bernini, Caravaggio... and many others who enjoyed the fruit of their labor and still loved their art. Then I look at Van Gogh. Isn't it a sad story? Now people are making millions when he barely made it through the day. I imagine my art paying the bills so I can get in the studio and worry about nothing but to create. I see nothing wrong with that. In fact, I want that! I also want to share what I know with others and open my studio for others to learn too. The business of art seems scary to me but it should not affect my creative spirit or the love for what I do.

Art Changing Lives

A few years ago I was teaching art to children with disabilities. It was my first official teaching job and one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Back then, the kids called me "Mr. T" (since it was easier than trying to say: "Tirado"). In one of the older kids' classes I had a student who ran to the bathroom and stayed there every time I can to teach the class. He was friendly outside the classroom, I spent time with his class many times in different activities, and we even had lunch together many times. He never ran away to hide or anything like that. One day during lunch I had to ask: "Why do you hide in the bathroom every time there is art class?". His answer changed my perception towards teaching and ignited my curiosity to understand self-efficacy beliefs (although I was not familiar with the term back then). He said: "Mr. T, I can't take that class. I can't do nothing of what you teach. I grew up listening to people telling me that I'm stupid. I don't want to try and then disappoint you too."

During my doctorate studies I focused my dissertation towards understanding self-efficacy beliefs as a way to predict how people would engage in new learning experiences (you can read about my research in if interested). Based on Social Cognitive Theory, self-efficacy beliefs are the product of the interaction between environment, behavior, and cognitive (and physical) capabilities forming the way with think about ourselves and our skills to reach a goal (if you think that's a mouthful wait until you see the title of my dissertation and the name of the journal it was published in). The interaction of these factors of causation (environment, behavior, and cognitive) is known as Triadic Reciprocal Determinism. To make it simple: Our experiences and how we react to and interpret these experiences shape what we think of ourselves now and how we are going to approach new challenges. I know you might be thinking: "What in the world does this mumbo-jumbo has to do with art?

Take a look of the benefits of art in all three factors of causation:

Physical factors: motor skills, eye/hand coordination, neurological reconstruction, stress reliever.

Cognitive factors: emotional relief, attitude change, understanding of culture and society, knowledge increase in art history, coping skills.

Environment: Different approach to decoding social and cultural symbolism, decoding environmental responses.

Behavior: better response to challenges, problem solving, better articulation of ideas.

Remember the kid hiding in the bathroom during art class? I had a conversation with him during lunch one day and taught him how to draw the human figure using basic shapes and proportions. He went his way and a few days later came to show me what he had accomplished. It was very impressive! This kid had so much hidden talent that was captive under the belief that he was stupid because that's what every one said. That year he achieved the certificate for best improved art student and not only that, he also improved in other domains. He began to understand that what people said won't count if you know you can do it. After graduation, He became a role model and mentor for younger kids.

I am not saying that art is the solution to your life's problems. IT IS NOT! However, ART opens spiritual and neurological pathways facilitating the release of repressed emotions, internal conflicts, and traumatic experiences. ART also helps as anxiety, depression and stress reliever. ART is a powerful tool to facilitate transformation. We are not talking about clinical therapy (although it is used clinically), art is therapy in itself, and the results and benefits are available to anyone who engages in the creative experience. This is not at all limited to children. It is often the child who grew up hurt who needs it more.

Art changes lives!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8820460