The old stuck-in-the-mud option of course, is just 'don't'
Aim to get it 'Clean in Camera'. Put the time and attention in 'up-front' to get the best image in-camera'as you can.
- Putting in the time and attention to make the most of your subject you will likely get far more, and better straight 'captures'.
- These 'straight captures' should then need NO post-processing to 'make' anything of them
- Nll or Negligible PP means less time spent trying to make a silk-purse out of a sows ear.
If you have 1000 images on the SD card by the end of a shoot, that is a HECK of a lot of time, NOT spent trying to 'correct' stuff you shouldn't and probably needn't have got wrong to start with.
THIS is where you start with Post-Process... aiming NOT to do any, if you can get away with it.
"Oh but the PRO's!".. get paid, and time is money! Any Pro that wastes time on Post-Process is loosing earnings. Once upon a time, few did ANY Post-Process; film was shot; developed at a lab, and we got back prints, and that was that. A few (madmen like me!) wasted nights and weekends in the dark-room; but not many, A-N-D... for an awful lot of post-process, if you don't have a decent picture to start with, it's a waste of time, you wont make much of a difference diddling it.
If you want to get into the more esoteric arena of 'Creative' Post process... well, a lot of that is 'art', like in Dark-Room days air-brushing back-grounds and blemishes.. easy to do.. usually badly..... in the digital domain... you have been warned..... more directly phonographic manipulations, like montaging multiple images, again, and even more so, tend to demand an even higher degree of 'Clean-in-Camera' discipline to make the separate elements to be montaged and 'match' the lighting and scale to make them work in post. More 'art', and even more C-in-C... you don't 'make' photo's in Post-Process... most just make mistakes! It is a really huge arena, and one where so many one-touch automated 'filter' effect post-processes now exit to make it 'seem' easy to do.... and oh-so-hard to make it 'work'......
If you are starting out, with a gift camera; google the Nikon webby, they have the latest versions of the original software, like View NX available to down-load, which is usefufl if you wish to shoot RAW and make life hard from the start... but MY advice is FIRST shoot jpg, learn to exploit the camera and aim to make as much of THAT as you can. And even there... you dont need to start getting lost in the trees looking for the forrest, worrying about 'settings'....
Learn about composition; worry about looking THROUGH. the camera, not at it; finding interesting subjects to take photo's of; then the more interesting angles to flatter them; pay attention to the back ground... little mantra for you... "North, South, East West, check the corners THEN the rest!" Look at the WHOLE frame, don't just slap the 'thing' of interest in the middle and hold the camera level in 'landscape' mode. LOOK at the subject, turn the camera to get best framing; change angle, look at the top, the bottom, the sides the corners, THEN look at the middle again... what is in there? What s interest, what is distracting, what is context. Make the MOST of the SCENE you see through the view-finder.... you will NEVER make more of it in post-process! Likewise settings! Likewise shooting 'RAW'. If you don't put it in front puf the lens to best effect to start with, you are on a looser from the off.
When you have your images, as best you can Clean in Camera.... those that don't work... don't work! You wont 'fix' them very often digi-diddling; so don't sweat it, take the lesson, go back to capture, get it Clean-in-Camera, and worry about getting the best you can THERE not in the computer!
As far as that goes, Photo-Shop is the incumbent post-processing software; there are many versions abut, and many older now 'free' versions, if you don't want to pay or pay a subscription. Its a very powerful bit of software, and if you want to learn the ropes, where you may learn them. One-Touch effects filters in things like instagram that do 'something' you don't understand, wont teach you how to post process, its rather like trying to learn to cook, buying TV dinners and zappng them in the microwave!
BUT, heed the warning... post-process is over-done; and habitually so by many who think they have to, just because they can, and well, /every-one does it don't they? No.. no they don't, and you will likely do a lot better NOT presuming so, and concentrating on making the most you can 'clean in camera'.... and if you are just starting out, its a good tip; DON'T bite off more than you can chew; don't heap up the plate; deal with one bit of learning at a time, and learning to get the most 'in' to the camera is enough to be getting on with... few do even that well.. jumping into the frey, ignoring that, worrying about 'settings' and then 'Post-Process' but it wont help you learn much, it's a bit like trying to learn algebra, and not bothering to learn to count first!
Learn to LOOK before you try and RUN 'programs' fumble buttons and swing sliders.
