Soft Editing Versus Hard Editing(Featuring Middle School Photography)

There are two phrases I like to make clear to my student especially the younger grades, and that is Hard Editing Vs. Soft Editing. 

Now I want to make it clear to you, the reader, that these terms may not be the standard terminology, however it is the verbiage I use to make my expectations for the students clear in my classroom, and on their assignments.

Hard Editing is when you add eliminates to the photo that completely changes the picture, defies the laws of physics, or adds an element that could not possible exist. Examples of this would be Adding space to the sky, or adding an animal that was not there originally. Below is an example of  hard Edit photo graphed and edited by a 7th grade student. 

Soft Editing is where you don't the image with only the pixel you have available to you. You don't add any images to the picture, the only thing you adjust is the lighting contrast and saturation. Below is an example of what that would look like, taken and edited by a 7th grade student. 

Here are a few more examples of Hard Edits:

More examples of Soft Edits:

This was all done by 7th and 8th graders. Aren't they Mindblowingly amazing fantastic!?

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