Getting started

The software used in digital photo processing can cost anything from several hundred pounds to - nothing! What if it turned out that the free software could do exactly the same job as the most expensive, wouldn't that be a bargain? Turns out, that's exactly the case. If you are a photographer (at any level) who just wants to make photographic prints, the chances are it won't cost you anything at all for the software you need to get started.

What you need

To make a photographic print from an image in your camera you need a printer - that’s about it. Some printers have built in memory card readers, so you don’t even need a computer to get a print from them.

For the more common type of printer that requires a computer, the only software you actually need in order to print will come with your printer. It’s called the “Printer Driver” and controls all aspects of your print; size, tone, colour and quality. No matter what other software you use, it’s the printer driver alone that finally controls your printer and what it does with your image.

Even the cheapest photo quality inkjet these days is capable of making very high quality photographic prints on photo quality paper, but only if the printer driver settings are correct. These settings are usually found by clicking a button marked “Preferences” or “Printer Options” when you come to make a print.

If you want to get the best quality prints possible, then understanding the different settings in your printer preferences is probably more important than anything else. You should find some form of “photo enhance” setting that should help make a good print even if the image is less than perfect.

If you are trying to print a poor image and the photo enhance is not helping then you can usually use advanced controls to alter the brightness or colour of a print. Doing this, however, is very much a trial and error process; it is much easier to do this with photo editing software.

Next page - Photo Editing

Printing options

Although most home printers can be set to enhance your image for printing, Internet labs tend to print exactly what you send them. Because of this, you may find the result a little disappointing.

Most images could do with a little digital photo processing to make a good print. They may look fine on a computer screen but our eyes are much more critical when it comes to the printed image.

If you don’t want to get involved in enhancing the image yourself, you can choose an Internet lab that offers this service - for a small fee.

Save money on software