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Photo Processing on a Mac

Photo Mac Processing_edited.jpg

If you have an iPad or a Mac computer you will have a very powerful photo editing program - Photos. It comes with the device and is free. It offers you an efficient way of storing, classifying and finding your photos especially if it is synchronised using iCloud.Photos  Once processed photos can be produced as books, cards, slide shows and calendars. You can easily share to Facebook, Instagram and Messages.

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Here we wil concentrate on processing.

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As described on the iPhone page there are basic processes all photo editing software follows. Photos is no exception. 

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They are

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  • Light

    • Exposure​

    • Contrast

    • Highlights

    • Brightness

    • Brilliance

    • Shadows

    • Black Point

  • Colour​

    • Saturation​

    • Vibrance

    • White Balance

    • Warmth

    • Tint

  • Sharpness​

    • Clarity​

    • Definition

    • Noise Reduction

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Even for experienced photographers it is difficult to work out what these processes do and how they differ. What's the order in which you do your processing and what works with what?

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The only way to find out is by trying them out and see what happens. If you don't like the effect they all have undo buttons or you can reset the whole lot. We recommend that you play around with photos on an iPhone and see what the adjustments do. Also Google and U-Tube and apply what you learn.

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As a general rule process in the following order: LIGHT, COLOUR, SHARPNESS

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Processing with Photos

  1. Select your photo in Photos by double-clicking it

  2. Try clicking the Auto Enhance button in the top right of the screen. If you like the effect your done!

  3. Click on the Edit button and, starting from the top try out the auto button beside the Light adjustment. Try moving the slider left and right to see the effect. Click the blue tick to turn the effect off and on or use the "Show Photo Without Effects" button in the top left of the screen. If you don't like the effect click the reset button left of the blue tick. 

  4. For more detailed Light adjustments click the Options drop down and try out the effects listed. If you want to reset the effect double click on the blue band from zero. 
    This is an excellent way to learn what the various effects do.

  5. Go through the same processes with Colour.

  6. The Curves tool is very powerful and does a lot of the things down by a combination of the tools in the Light section. We will explain this in more detail later.

  7. When you have adjusted the light, colour and sharpness you can click on Crop to

    1. Straighten​

    2. Resize

    3. Flip

      There is a set of standard sizes that are used on computer and phone screens and for printing. 
       

  8. Once you have made your adjustments and have cropped you photo click the Done button, keeping in mind that you can always come back and reset using the button at the bottom right,  the photo to how it was before you started.

  9. All changes you make are automatically saved.

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