Are you removing a good story? Is it legal? 6 tips on image editing
Eager to crack open an image editing programme and get working on an image ready for Insta? Hang on a sec! Here’s a few points to consider before you do:
Copyright. If it’s an image from an image library then you are almost certainly restricted. If you edit a photo, it is still copyrighted. If you edit an image that you didn’t create, it is still copyrighted. If you modify a picture, it is still copyrighted. You get the idea! Read the licence agreement and always have permission from the original creator of the picture or library. Did I say that enough?!
What’s allowed? Gentle tweaks on colour saturation maybe okay (but even then check your monitor calibration and get familiar with the basics of print, paper and ink saturation), removing an ear or a tree may not be. Again, check.
Can you save it correctly? Paid software like Photoshop exports to high-resolution files. Free software often doesn’t which means if your project is print, you may end up with low-resolution images which are not suitable for the press.
Are you removing a good story? One of my favourite projects is My Story for The Association of Jewish Refugees which I design. We have photos from family albums with torn edges or marks from a journey across Europe. They tell the story of a lifetime. They have a narrative of their own. With many of the historical publications I have worked on (for example, history titles for Cambridge University Press, Charterhouse, Regent Court Press) I discuss the image policy with clients first. Often photos are only rejected if they are low resolution as they'll look poor in print. Where I can, and with permission, I'll correct some disfigurations in Photoshop depending on the source. Is the image telling your audience a story and will your work remove the creator’s intention?
Are you changing the form? If it’s a painting, it’s probably meant to show brushstrokes. If it’s from an image library that’s listed under BAPLA then it’s almost certainly a very high quality scan undertaken by professionals. It’s going to be great quality and doesn’t require much, if any, alteration.
Is it your job or within your skills set? If you want to learn then do try a course. Adobe runs courses for Photoshop but photo editing is an acquired skill, just Google ‘Photoshop disasters’ to find some interesting results!
TAKEAWAY
Is it necessary? Are you creating more work for yourself that’s best placed with your designer? Are you being subjective? Take a step back and view it objectively.