Exposure Digital Field Guide

Appendix A. Software

Gone are the days of darkrooms, developing chemicals, and enlargers. They have been replaced with card readers, computers, and printers, and you now have the ability to share your images with thousands of people at the same time using the Internet.

Software programs created for photographers can apply watermarks to images, prepare images for e-mail, and even create entire Web galleries. In this Appendix, I cover a few software programs that can adjust the exposure of your images. All the software listed here can do more than that, and some — such as Adobe Photoshop — can do so much that a book three times this size would barely cover all the features and capabilities. This is by no means a comprehensive guide of all the software available to edit your images.

Each camera manufacturer has its own software, each with its own pluses and minuses. I don't cover those software packages here because this is not a camera-specific book. All the software here works with cameras produced by any of today's camera manufacturers. Two of the programs, Aperture and iPhoto, are available only on Apple computers but are included here because of their widespread use by photographers. Also, all the software discussed here works with the RAW file types produced by today's cameras.

The goal is to get the exposure right in the camera when shooting and not have to use any software to fix the image later. People now seem to think that Photoshop (or any photo-editing software) is the answer ...