From the time we have started replicating objects be it real or imaginary in forms of images, as paintings, drawings, sketches or photographs, always one has also been striving to perfect the image to ensure that the image is a true reflection of the object.

Over the year the methodology of achieving this desired perfection has changed. Artists studied and developed techniques in various fields, be it in the way the artist approached and constructed the picture or how a photographer framed and shot his picture. For this article we focus more so on photography and how the endeavor to overcome challenges to make perfect replicas has evolved and grown.     

Early days one tried to improve the way the pictures were shot, technology evolved by leaps and bounds resulting in far better equipments, be it cameras, lenses, lighting, filters and so on. There continue to be lot of work and progress in this space, both in still photography and moving pictures. Post shoot one worked on different factors – the way the films were developed, and techniques evolved to better the quality of the image which was ultimately reproduced.

With the advent of Digital images there has been a sea change in hardware equipment, but more importantly there has been a significant vista of post shoot editing opening up. The possibilities are limitless for both amateur and professional photographers alike.

These developments allow photographers to focus and concentrate on shooting pictures as best as they can, in very trying conditions that they tend to operate in. Digital images can be edited, managed and worked upon to transform them into perfection. They are by far done using advanced software. There is many a software that is used for image editing and enhancement some of the more popular ones are Adobe photoshop, Autodesk and so on. This field is a vast ocean and many specialize in certain functions and become experts in it.

Fundamentally a photographer when shooting their subjects, be it people or places or buildings, does so under a lot of challenges and limitations, light quality, limited control over certain elements, sudden distractions and unwanted objects entering the frame. The photographer does not always have time or luxury of a reshoot for various reasons.

Here in enters the artist and technicians who work the images and convert them to picture perfect. They do so by using advanced tools and features of the image editing software. The possibilities are limitless; post shoot image editing and enhancing experts who are trained and experienced in working with images can work magic. They can     

• Remove elements of a picture, they could add elements
• Change backgrounds, alter or change the sky.
• Crop images to remove the unwanted parts on the fringes and many a times to centre the object to ensure the object is highlighted.
• Flawed exposures are corrected whether it was overexposed or the other way around.
• Red eyes can be corrected – A phenomenon and the technique we will explore in a different article.
• The color balance of both the primary color and the white or neutral balance is corrected to ensure pictures are perfect and represent colors and shades, the exact same as the human eye perceives and sees it. This is critical since most times the way the camera receptors receive and perceive colours and shades in varying light qualities is different from the way the human eyes does it – Which we will explore and explain in detail in a spate article.
• Portraits are enhanced to highlight the person and make them look attractive and suitable to the mood and create the aura so desired

And the list goes on and the importance and criticality of photo enhancement keeps growing with time.

Its importance to professional real estate photographers, products photographer, portraits and outdoor photography is paramount and critical given that these industries need pictures to communicate to their potential customers and for that the pictures need to be of the highest quality and be extremely desirable. With the growth in e-commerce and the internet becoming an important medium, probably the medium for brands and companies, to be present and make a mark, pictures are becoming more and more important and the audience more and more critical.

All this factored and considered, post shoot – photo editing has a lot to contribute to professional photography and will continue to play an ever growing role in the way images are produced.