Love taking photos but don't like spending time on computer to "tweek" them.?

Question

Does anyone have an suggestions of how to avoid spending so much time on the computer tweeking digital photos? I took photos of friends at a picnic today and wanted to put photos on the web ASAP so now it's been 4 hours and I FINALLY finished them. Ugh!! I want my friends to see the photos but I don't want to have to spend so much time on the computer! (I like to crop them all individually - maybe I'm too much of a perfectionist.)

Answer 1

I highly recommend the freeware IrfanView, it has many useful features, yet is extremely easy to handle. From your description I take it that this might be just the right program for you...

http://www.irfanview.net/

Answer 2

If you could show us the before and after photos, I might be able to give a helpful answer.  Anyway I use Photoshop, and unless the picture is really messed up I just hit the auto color and auto contrast.

And for cropping photos, really the best thing to do, is crop it the way you want it, as you aim the camera before shooting the picture.  Frame your shot in the camera and leave at that.

That will save you time later on the computer.

Answer 3

If it's just cropping you're doing, then I don't know what to tell you.

There's no way around it, unless you just stop cropping.

If it's stuff like exposure, etc., then the answer is to know more about photography, to be able to take photos that are closer to being right, or more like you want them to be, by controlling exposure, composition, etc at the time.

And you can't do that by leaving the camera on "auto" like most people do with digital cameras.

There's a million books and websites on how to be a better photographer.

Answer 4

Either you spend a lot of time perfecting a shot before clicking (the less likely you wil have candid shots) or you spend a lot of time cropping and otherwise fixing up the photos.

Digital cameras are a godsend in one way - you can 'zoom' in on the subject or edit out things you don't need in the pic after you have taken it - but on the other hand it is also a great time-waster!

I usually just edit my best photos; leave the rest the way they are.