Getting Started with Editing Software for Charities

Creating great content isn’t just for digital whizzes. We’re all creators now and using video and imagery can motivate digital fundraising efforts, so it is important to make sure content is sharp where possible. With editing software, charity digital professionals can create Instagram worthy photos and professional videos.

Starting with a few digital concepts, we showcase some of the most popular editing software tools available for users of all levels.

What are the key digital elements in photos and videos?
Starting with the basics, digital photos and videos have key elements which for the most part, are editable. Understanding pixels, size, sound, and picture quality impacts the extent to which photos and videos can be edited.

Pixels, in both videos and images, determine the quality and sharpness of the visual. Roughly, a pixel is a very small area of the screen, perhaps the size of a pinprick, which displays colour. Take lots of pixels together, and an image is formed. The resolution of the screen, video or photo tells you how detailed the picture is. At a low resolution and large size, pictures and videos will appear blurry and ‘pixelated’.

Digital sound works in a similar way. The term ‘high-res audio’ is a measure of how good the sound quality is by both the sampling rate and bit depth. Digital Trends online magazine explains that the sampling rate is the number of times sound is capture digitally per second, while the bit depth is the number of bits of information taken per second. Both measures need to be high to have high quality sound.

What elements are editable in photos?
Photos can be relatively easy to edit, particularly as many charity digital staff are already familiar with basic editing features for email marketing and other communications.

When selecting photos, remember that the resolution is important. The raw, unaltered content may ultimately be the deciding factor of how you use a photo because the resolution is very difficult to improve. Realistically, making the image smaller might work, but blowing up the size will dilute the quality of the image.

Basic photo editing software can then help with exposure, colour, contrast, sharpening, and for more experienced editors, layering. Editing software can fix problems of over-exposure, enhance colour, sharpen silhouettes, and add special effects like focus, blurred background, or filters. For more complex images, layers can also be edited – software can change a single layer of a multi-layered image.

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Source: Charity Digital News