How to learn image processing

I was recently asked an interesting question relating to avoiding image processing errors: “…where is a good starting point for those of us not so familiar to go and start learning about these things?” For my answer, I’m going back to square one. Seeing clearly There are two stages to this. The first step, as in drawing, is to pay attention to what the world looks like. Look at the world. Really look. Look at skin texture. Look at feathers. Look at edges. Look at colors. That’s reality, and it should be the ground truth that begins our photographic journey. If we want to alter what’s there in editing, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but we should be doing that consciously, and with purpose. The second is to see how other people have dealt with the problem of representing three-dimensional, stereoscopic, incredibly detailed reality in photographs. You won’t know how to tell if you’re making good prints or not if you don’t know what good prints look like. The hard part about…