View my lighting and set up tips in my previou article here.

The next step in photographing your card is to edit the photograph, fixing the lighting levels and adding a watermark. To do this you will need an editing software. I use Adobe Photoshop Element 4.0 to edit my photos, but there are a large range of programs on the market that you can choose from. One in particular that I have been playing around with is GIMP. GIMP is a free photo editing software downloadable from gimp.org that I used to edit my photos for my last entry. If you want to download GIMP then follow the instructions on the website for downloading.

Once you have a photo editing software, you can start editing your photos. The first thing that I do after opening my photo is to adjust the levels. This step is overlooked by many beginner photographers and can make a HUGE difference if done properly. Here is a before and after picture of the level adjustments that I made on a previous card photo. Most cameras will try to adjust the lighting levels themselves and usually darken the image because they don't think the image can be that bright. With a quick level adjustment you can make the image as bright as it is supposed to be.

The next step after adjusting the levels is to make any minor adjustments, such as removing the number off of the side of the wood block, and blurring the background just a little bit more. After that I crop the photo to get rid of some of the blank space around the card. Don't crop your photo right next to the card or your viewers will feel that there isn't enough "breathing room" around the card, as it is "squeezed" into the photo. 

Finally, after those steps are finished I will add my watermark and save it for web as a .png file. I save my image as a .png file as it retains transparencies unlike .jpgs. I'll try and get my tutorial on making a simple watermark up maybe tomorrow, and if you want tutorials on how to use GIMP then I could do some quick ones covering the steps in this entry.

As I said before, I am NOT an expert - I know that I'm my worst critic - but maybe I've been able to help you take and edit better photos for your blogs/galleries. I do want to thank all of you who view my blog and have encouraged this blog. With out you there would not be a blog.

View my tutorial on creating a watermark here.