Getting Started with Image Editing - Image Editing for Beginners - Class 8

Introduction

Do you find yourself in situations where you need to edit an image on your computer, but you're not sure where to start? Maybe you've been tasked with editing a photo for a company newsletter or blog, or you want to spruce up some vacation pictures before sharing them with friends. The truth is, almost any image can benefit from a little editing.

While the idea of image editing might be intimidating, you don't need to be a professional designer or photographer to master it. Take a look at the images below. We were able to significantly improve this photo with just a few simple adjustments, including basic edits, cropping, and resizing, all done in under five minutes.

Whether you need to work with images at home or at the office, this tutorial will cover the basics you'll need to know to get started. You should be able to apply these techniques in almost any image editing software.

Understanding the basics

We see digital image files every day in a wide range of places. Whenever you see a picture on a computer or smartphone, you're looking at a digital image file. When you take a picture with a digital camera, you're saving it as an image file. Even the images you see offline, like those in newspapers and magazines, probably started as digital image files before they were printed.
Have you ever thought about how image files actually work? Here are some of the basics.

Pixels

Every digital photo is made up of pixels, often abbreviated as px. You can think of a pixel as a tiny square that uses a specific color. When you look at an image file on a computer, you're really looking at thousands and thousands of pixels. But because each pixel is so small, you normally won't notice each of them unless you zoom in.

Dimensions of an Image

• The height and width of an image are called its dimensions. This tells you how big the image is. Dimensions are usually written as width by height. For example, if an image is 500 pixels wide and 200 pixels tall, we say its dimensions are 500px by 200px.
• For instance, if you have an image that is 450 pixels wide and 300 pixels tall, it is in landscape orientation because it is wider than it is tall. 

• The image below is 300px by 450px. Because this image is taller than it is wide, it's using portrait orientation.
  

Resolution of an Image

• You can think of an image's resolution as the amount of detail contained in the image.
•  The higher the resolution, the more quality the image will have. Resolution is especially important if you're thinking of printing or resizing an image. 
• This is because you can generally make an image smaller without noticing much of a difference in the quality. 
• However, making an image larger than its original size will usually result in a noticeable loss in quality.
  In the example below, the smaller version still looks sharp and clear.
  

If you try to make a low-resolution image any larger, it simply won't have enough detail to look good at the new size. As you can see in the example below, the resized image is blurry and doesn't have a lot of detail. You might also notice that some parts of the image look blocky, or pixelated.

Image File Formats

There are several file formats used with images. It's important to understand the basics of image file formats, along with the most common ones you'll see when working with images.

File Size and Image Compression

Digital images can occupy a lot of space on your hard drive, so compression is often used to reduce their size. There are two main types of image compression:

• Lossy Compression: This method reduces file size by removing some image data, which lowers the overall quality.
• Lossless Compression: This method compresses the file without removing any data, although the reduction in file size is typically not as significant as with lossy compression.

Images that use lossy compression can be saved at different quality levels. The lower the quality, the smaller the file size. This is because lowering the quality also removes more information from the image. In the example below, you can see the same image saved at different quality levels.

Recommended File Formats

These are the most common file formats. We recommend using them most of the time:

• JPEG: Pronounced jay-peg, this file type is commonly used for photographs, and most digital cameras save photos in this format by default. JPEG uses lossy compression, which means it provides a reasonably high level of quality without a very large file size.
• PNG: Pronounced ping or p-n-g, this file type is commonly used for graphics and illustrations, although it can also be used for photographs. PNG uses lossless compression, meaning photographs saved with this format will usually be of a higher quality than JPEG images, but the file size will be much larger.

Other Common File Formats

• GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
  • Pronunciation: The file type can be pronounced as "gif" or "jif".
  • Origin: Initially created for graphics, the GIF format is now most commonly used for simple animated images on the internet.
  • Example: An example of an animated GIF file is shown in the image above.

• Uncompressed File Formats

  • RAW: Digital cameras often use the RAW format to save high-quality images. RAW files are uncompressed, resulting in much larger file sizes compared to JPEG and PNG files. The RAW format preserves all the data captured by the camera sensor.
  • BMP (Bitmap): BMP is another common uncompressed file format. Like RAW, BMP files do not use compression, which leads to larger file sizes.

Preserving Your Original Images

• Editing an image file can result in the loss of some original information.
• Continuously editing the same file may cause the edited image to deteriorate significantly compared to the original.
• This phenomenon is known as image degradation and primarily impacts files that utilize lossy compression, such as JPEG files.
• The positive aspect is that there is a straightforward solution to prevent this issue.
• If you intend to make even basic alterations to an image, like cropping or resizing, it is advisable to retain the original files.
• By doing so, you ensure the ability to revert to the original version whenever necessary.