"The Big Five" Photo Defects

There are many, many photo editors out there that one can use to fix pictures that fall into "The Big Five" problem areas:

1. Under Exposure
2. Over Exposure
3. Low Contrast
4. Tilted Camera
5. Color Cast

In my opinion, the two best editors are:

1. Photoshop
2. Picasa 3

Let me start off with Photoshop --- the Cadillac of all photo editors and also the most expensive. I have been using Photoshop for many years and have become addicted to all the bells and whistles this software provides. Within reason you can correct just about any defect with Photoshop and to help prove my point, I will be supplying before and after examples in a later blog. The only problem in using Photoshop is that one can tweak and tweak a photo forever. Once you are aware of the power of this software, you will find yourself spending a great deal of time on each image. Now, if you return from a trip with several hundred pictures, you will literally spend weeks and weeks fixing all of them.

Given that 90% of all imperfect photos can be categorized by one or more of "The Big Five" defects, you can use a less sophisticated editor, such as Picasa 3. I have found that using Picasa will do the job very nicely and that you will correct your large collection of photos in days and not weeks.

There are a number of types of defects, however, that Picasa cannot correct. I will give you examples of these defects at a later time.