Digital technology has definitely made its mark on the photographic world. For all the analogue diehards, myself being one, and to the naysayers who viewed it only as a passing fancy the message is clear - it's here to stay. As a tool it's a wonderful thing. Since I crossed over - to the dark side as one of my film photographer colleagues calls it - I have seen a marked improvement in my pictures, if for no other reason than the freedom digital provides. Still, great pictures don't happen simply by pushing the shutter button, that's just the beginning of the image. In the digital world, including scanned negatives or slides, the second half of the equation is the computer and imaging software like Photoshop.

Photoshop is a huge program and to learn all of its capabilities could take months of study. Fortunately for most of us that's not necessary. Getting a handle on a few of Photoshop's tools will help amateur photographers greatly increase the quality of their images, especially now that home printing is increasingly becoming popular.

For beginners, the most important elements of Photoshop to understand are setting the levels, controlling brightness and contrast, using unsharp mask and the correct use of the clone stamp and healing brush.

Once an image is imported into Photoshop the first thing to do is to set the levels. There are two methods of doing this. The first is to go to the image tab on the top menu bar, click then scroll down to adjustments and then over to levels. Once chosen a dialogue box will appear with what is called a histogram, essentially a graph depicting the exposure of the image. There are three toggles, one on the left, one on the right and one in the middle. The left one represents the dark areas of the picture, the right the white areas and the centre the midtones. Adjusting any of these will affect how the picture is going to look. Ideally the left and right toggle are pulled in to just where the graph starts - it kind of looks like a black hill - and the middle one is then used to make fine adjustments. The best way to get to know how to use levels is to try it. This is where the second method comes in handy.

This time, instead of scrolling across to Image, go to Layers, click and scroll down to New Adjustment Layer. From here choose levels and follow the same rules as with histogram. The difference between the two is a matter of safety. By using the New Adjustment Layer option, Photoshop creates a layer on top of the original picture, but separate from it. In this way the picture can be manipulated but if a mistake is made it won't damage the original underneath. This is my preferred method of fixing pictures, because I know that I am as capable as making a mistake as anyone else.

Moving onto Brightness and Contrast, again go to the New Adjustment Layer and choose Brightness and Contrast. Click yes for a new layer. When the dialogue box appears adjust the brightness to around a value of -5 and the contrast to about +5. I would try to keep them around those numbers. Small movements in Photoshop can mean big changes to your images. So be careful.

Any adjustments made through the New Adjustment Layer will create a new layer. Once you are happy with the image the final step is to flatten the layers, ostensibly squishing them all together into one image. Again go into layers and scroll down and click on Flatten Image. Another tip is to make a copy of the original in Save As under the File tab. Check the copy box and save to wherever you want - ie: desktop or a specific picture folder.

Next is Unsharp Mask (USM). There are a lot of complicated reasons why Unsharp Mask actually works, but the details aren't important. The thing that is important however is to use Unsharp Mask sparingly. If too much is added the image will go from being gently nudged to give it a little punch to being knocked out with too much manipulation.

Scroll across to the Filter tab on the top menu bar and then move the cursor across and down to Unsharp Mask. The dialogue box will open with three sliders. From the top they are Amount, Radius and Threshold.

By sliding the Amount toggle to the right, dark areas get darker and light areas lighter. Slide too much though and everything becomes a mess of darks and lights and looks somewhat like an x-ray. Radius is what controls the amount of blurring at the edges in an image and Threshold determines differences in pixels. It sounds like a lot of boffin nonsense, and to most of us it is. Still, used properly USM will give an image with that little extra something making it stand out, especially when pictures are printed. Try starting with the Amount set at 20, the Radius at 50 and the Threshold at 0. It's also best to view the image at %100, or click on the Actual Pixels box at the top. This way the differences between settings are easily seen. But keep in mind Unsharp Mask must be used sparingly. The last couple of things I wanted to look at are a couple of clean-up tools: the clone stamp and the healing brush. Both are important tools when trying to remove dust and scratches or flatten out wrinkles on faces.

The healing brush is one of the best innovations of the last two or three editions of Photoshop in my opinion. The Healing Brush essentially is an intelligent paint brush that is similar to the Clone Stamp tool, but different in a couple of crucial ways. Whereas the Clone Stamp will mirror image whatever is sampled and duplicate it wherever the operator decides to put it, the Healing Brush looks at the texture, color, and luminosity of the source area separately. Then when you paint, it merges the texture from the sample area into the color and luminosity of the destination area. To create a seamless merge the Healing Brush spreads out by 10-12 pixels around the brush. This is an important tidbit of information to keep in mind. When using the Healing Brush around areas in a picture where there is a hard shift in colours - edge of a building against a blue sky background - if not done carefully the healing brush will pick up one colour or the other and create a smudge where you don't want it. In these circumstances I use the Clone Stamp. Again, like the Unsharp Mask, clean-up should be done at %100.

Photoshop can be a daunting program to use. But with practice and a bit of time enough can be learned to really make your pictures sing. I've only touched the surface here. To begin to get a better understanding of this amazing program start with a resource book. There are many on the market but one the best and easiest to follow has to be Photoshop
for Dummies. From Amazon starting at £11.21.

Times recommends

• 'New York has lost its edge'
• The UK and Ireland's 25 best Christmas events
• Chalet Chef 2010: the winners