06/01/2026
Tips For Beginners
Editing.
I'm a lazy editor, I normally spend about 2 minutes on the task. Because I prefer to shoot a little underexposed, it entails a wee brighten and a crop to get the composition that I want and if needed an errant twig of something like that removed. (no point in not removing something that can be a distraction) I use Affinity Photo, really from a cost point of view as once you buy it there are no further costs.
If a photo isn't sharp or has the look I want I'm quite brutal about binning them, you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear. In camera should always be where the image is created.
COLOUR. Over saturation is one of the biggest mistakes beginners make, less is more. The best piece of advice I can give on this is to get your hands on a copy of The Crossley ID Guide for Britain and Ireland, not only will you have the best bird ID book I have seen but the colours are first class. If you are only editing for facebook etc accurate colour editing doesn't matter, the more flourescent they are the more likes you'll get π€£π€£π€£
SHARPNESS, don't waste your time, you won't improve it, quite the reverse. That said sometimes a soft photo with pleasing settings does work.
WHITE BALANCE, A little warmth can be added to an image taken on a day with bland light, again be careful not to over do it.
Resizing the photo, Any photo that I want to print I resize to 300 DPI, that way you will have far more detail at print to larger sizes.
Tips on editing could go on a lot longer but these are some of the basics. If anyone is in my area I'm more than happy to run through the process with them.