Knowing the order in which to do things when editing digital photos is very important.  Here are some basic steps to take to make sure your photo is the best it can be.

1.    Crop the image. Try cropping in more tightly on the focus of the photo. Not only does this usually give the image greater impact, but it also saves on pixels and, thus, on disk space.

2.   Fix defects in the image. Before you fix other aspects of the photo, repair imperfections in the image. It is helpful to make these corrections at this stage, because later they may become magnified through other changes you make, and thus may be more difficult to fix. You will probably want to zoom in on the photo to a pixel level to make many of these corrections.

3.   Hairs, tears, creases: Repair with a “cloning” tool. - Large blotches and spots: Repair with “cloning” tool and similar tools available in different programs, such as a “smudge” tool. -

4.   Red-eye: Many programs have red-eye replacement, which allows you to replace the red-eye with copies of existing colors in the image, or with colors you choose. Sometimes the red-eye will completely obscure the actual eye color, and you will need to verify eye color from someone who knows the color of the subject’s eyes.

5.    Missing elements: Try various tools to find those that work best. One particularly difficult thing to fix in a photo is large reflected areas on eyeglasses, resulting from the eyeglasses reflecting light from a flashbulb. Also, blotches on faces or other body parts that need to be fixed with considerable care and patience, since you must basically recreate large or significant portions of the image. You may need to experiment and use several correction tools to fix the image in a way that makes it appear natural.

6.   Changing backgrounds: For some images, you may want to isolate the central images and mute the background or delete it entirely. In lower-end programs, this will require you to use “paint” or “clone” tools over the entire background. Some programs, however, allow you to change the background completely, once you isolate the part of the overall image which you wish to retain. While deleting backgrounds can remove important information from the image, it may be desirable for a framed photo.