Plenty of people have moved into the new realm of digital photography, but are still stuck in the old realm of how they think about their photos.
With film cameras, there was a mystery about your shots. You never knew what you had shot until you got that thick envelope back from the film lab. Many of the shots wouldn't be good, perhaps you were shooting into the sun or someone closed his eyes during a group shot, but there was nothing you could do about that. Photo retouching was expensive, and not something you did often.
Digital photos, however, offer more possibilities in what you can do with them. If you've been raised to think of photos as priceless and untouchable, it can be hard to accept that it's okay to alter and enhance your digital photos. You don't have to settle for the original shot.
CroppingRemoving Red-EyeAdjusting ColorsIf you're still uncertain, read the support materials for your photo organizing or editing software (probably the software that came with your digital camera) and see if it saves an original copy of your photos when you edit them. Apple iPhoto, for example, always preserves the original, so you can return to it days or years after editing a photo. This is called "non-destructive editing," and it means that you can edit a picture without fear of losing the valuable original.
Troy Dreier is a freelance tech writer based in the New York City area. 
