Photography is a part on online journalism that allows the reader to see what it is that you are talking about and adds an important element of interaction. Digital cameras are readily available to everyone, and must smart phones have a camera of their own that reporters can use for quick photographs.
Almost as important as taking the actual photo, is editing it on your computer for a final product. If you are willing to shell out the money, Photoshop is a wonderful program with many tools to edit and transform your photographs, but there are other free options that get the job done as well.
Some free options include:
- iPhoto
- Windows Photo Gallery
- Express Live
- Flicker
- Photobucket
This is a screenshot from iPhoto
Unfortunately the mostly free online option “Picnik” will be shutting down April 19 and moving to Google+ instead of being its own site.
When editing pictures, there are few simple steps to stick to in order to create the best photo possible for publishing.
- Edit a copy of the photo- never the original
- Crop the photo to include the most important information in the photo
- Resize the photo to fit a blog so you have a low-resolution photo
- Modify the resolution
- Tone and color correct the photo
- Save a web version
- Keep it simple- try to use the free options if you can for cropping and simple editing
Here is a great tutorial for learning how to use iPhoto ’11 for Mac.
It is important to try to familiarize yourself with the programs with some sample photos so that you become comfortable with the different editing tools before using on an actual project. If you are a student at George Mason University, the STAR lab offers free workshops on learning how to use Photoshop and can be found at ittraining.gmu.edu.
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