Photo retouching isn't exactly new. For many decades, professional and hobby photographers alike have been tweaking their photos to make them look even better, even before technology arrived as we know it today. Whether using tools like airbrushes to modify photographs, or editing illustrations with traditional artistic techniques, the concept is anything but a recent invention.
Photo Retouching On The Go – Why More And More Photographers Use Online Solutions
1. Photo Retouching On The Go – Why
More And More Photographers Use
Online Solutions
Photo retouching
isn’t exactly new. For many decades,
professional and hobby photographers alike
have been tweaking their photos to make
them look even better, even before
technology arrived as we know it today.
Whether using tools like airbrushes to
modify photographs, or editing illustrations
with traditional artistic techniques, the
concept is anything but a recent invention.
Traditional analogue image editing, known
as photo retouching, was, however,
reserved to the pros. All that changed when
digital photography arrived on the scene,
which was met by initial scepticism… but
2. sooner, rather than later convinced
photographers on its usefulness. Taking
large amounts of photos and then
developing and storing them all became
much easier and more accessible for
different groups of photographers or even
mere holiday photo snappers. As the
concept of photo retouching carried over into
the new age, editing and modifying images
taken with a camera became commonplace
and was no longer reserved to expert
photographers. But that required some
photo retouching software. For the time –
the desktop one.
There are literally thousands of programmes and
apps available which allow pro photographers or
aficionados of photography to retouch, modify,
and improve their shots, at home when sat at the
PC, or, perhaps more importantly, even on the
go, with numerous tools available for mobile
devices such as laptops, smartphones, and
tablets. And we are not just talking about putting
fancy filters on top of an Image using something
3. like Instagram, but about serious, professional
editing work.
On a PC, photo editing has long been
synonymous with Adobe Photoshop, although an
increasing number of people gravitate towards
free solutions, like the rather inscrutable GIMP,
which seduces with functionality but confuses
with its user Interface, or the rather more userfriendly Paint.net, which stops short of being a
real alternative to Photoshop because of a feature
set which is just a little bit limited for people
who are serious about their photographic art.
Even more professional tools like Adobe
Lightroom, or software with specialized
functions such as ArcSoft Portrait Plus, or
Perfect365, all contribute to the wide spectrum
of available editing Tools.
More and more, however, these products, rather
traditional in terms of image manipulation
methods and able to run only on PC or Mac, are
being replaced, or alternated with more
lightweight photo editing apps for mobile phones
and smartphones like Filterstorm for iPhone or
4. iPad, PhotoGene of FX Photo Studio HD. Builtin tools such as iPhoto or equivalent pre-installed
apps for Android offer basic image manipulation
capabilities like size alteration, cropping,
histograms, or image orientation.
Despite this plethora of affordable and practical
options, many photographers who are passionate
about retouching feel that online photo editing
solutions have reached a point where they are
ready to more or less replace traditional desktop
imaging software for pro photographers.
Solutions like Pics.io will offer all the additional
benefits and added value of products such as
Photoshop, e.g. layers, RAW-editing, histograms
etc. but all that online and with the advantages of
online photo storage and cross-platform
compatibility. More or less, Pics.io will
eliminate the need of traditional photo
retouching software. Most modern Software, like
Microsoft’s Office suites, are nowadays offered
as SaaS (Software as a Service), i.e.
subscription-based, and Pics.io is no exception.
Once you sign up, your processing Software is
available from anywhere, at home and on the
5. road, using a variety of devices and Operating
Systems. We tap into the processor power of the
device and make sure that operations are
processed just as quickly as when using
traditional photo retouching software.
Source: http://blog.pics.io/photo-talks/photoretouching-on-the-go/