To master photography editing and elevate your images, think of it as a strategic process where each tool and technique serves a specific purpose in refining your vision. It’s not just about slapping on a filter. it’s about making deliberate choices to enhance composition, correct exposure, balance colors, and ultimately, tell a more compelling story with your photographs. When we talk about the “best photography editing,” we’re really discussing a combination of powerful software, efficient workflows, and the right hardware that empowers you to transform a raw capture into a polished piece. For anyone looking to dive deep and get hands-on with a robust set of tools, exploring options like PaintShop Pro can be a smart move. They even offer a free trial, and right now, you can snag a 👉 PaintShop Pro Standard 15% OFF Coupon Limited Time FREE TRIAL Included, making it an excellent opportunity to test out a top-tier photography editing program without a full commitment. The best photography editing software for you might depend on your skill level and specific needs, whether you’re a beginner seeking user-friendly interfaces or a seasoned pro needing advanced features. There are numerous options, from best photography editing apps for quick mobile tweaks to comprehensive desktop solutions, influencing everything from the best photography editing laptop to the best photography editing monitor you’ll need. Even online communities like “best photography editing software reddit” often debate the merits of different platforms, highlighting popular choices like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Affinity Photo, and GIMP one of the best photography editing software free options. The goal is to find the best photography editing computer setup that supports your workflow, allowing you to effectively use the best photography editing programs to achieve stunning results.
Demystifying Photography Editing Software: Your Digital Darkroom Choices
Unlocking the full potential of your photographs hinges significantly on the editing software you choose. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all scenario.
The “best photography editing software” truly depends on your specific needs, skill level, and budget.
Think of it like choosing the right tools for a craftsman – a carpenter needs different tools than a plumber.
Professional-Grade Desktop Solutions
For serious photographers and professionals, desktop software offers unparalleled control and a vast array of features.
These are the workhorses of the photography world, capable of handling complex edits, managing large libraries, and delivering high-resolution outputs.
- Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom: These are often considered the industry standards, and for good reason.
- Adobe Lightroom: Primarily a non-destructive image editor and organizational powerhouse. It excels at batch processing, RAW file development, and cataloging thousands of images. It’s fantastic for photographers who need to manage large volumes of photos and apply consistent adjustments. A recent report by Statista indicated that as of 2023, Adobe Photoshop holds a commanding market share in image editing software, with Lightroom often used in conjunction for workflow efficiency.
- Adobe Photoshop: The ultimate pixel-level editor. If you need to composite images, perform intricate retouches, create graphics, or manipulate specific areas with precision, Photoshop is your go-to. It supports layers, masks, and a myriad of plugins, making it incredibly versatile. However, its power comes with a steeper learning curve.
- Affinity Photo: A strong contender that offers a one-time purchase model, appealing to those who prefer to avoid subscriptions. It’s a robust photo editing program with impressive RAW development capabilities, layered editing, and professional retouching tools, making it a viable alternative to Photoshop for many users.
- Capture One Pro: Renowned for its superior RAW processing engine and tethered shooting capabilities, Capture One is a favorite among studio photographers and those who prioritize color accuracy and detail. It offers advanced color grading and layer-based editing, providing exceptional control over image aesthetics.
Free and Open-Source Alternatives
For beginners or those on a budget, several excellent free photography editing software options can get you started without breaking the bank.
While they might not have every bells and whistle of their paid counterparts, they offer significant functionality.
- GIMP GNU Image Manipulation Program: Often dubbed the “free Photoshop,” GIMP is a powerful open-source image editor. It supports layers, masks, and a wide range of tools for photo retouching, image composition, and graphic design. While its interface might take some getting used to, the community support is vast, and it’s constantly being developed. It’s one of the best photography editing software free options available.
- Darktable: A free and open-source alternative to Lightroom, specializing in RAW image development. Darktable offers a non-destructive workflow, allowing you to apply various adjustments like exposure, color correction, and noise reduction without altering the original file. It’s particularly popular among Linux users but is also available for Windows and macOS.
- RawTherapee: Another excellent open-source RAW photo editor, RawTherapee provides advanced control over image processing. It boasts a comprehensive set of tools for exposure, color management, detail enhancement, and lens correction, making it a powerful choice for those who want deep control over their RAW files.
Online and Mobile Editing Apps
For quick edits on the go, or for social media optimization, mobile and web-based applications are incredibly convenient.
Many of these are best photography editing apps for smartphone users.
- Snapseed Google: A free, intuitive, and feature-rich mobile app available for both iOS and Android. It offers a wide range of tools, from basic adjustments to selective edits, healing, and filter application, making it one of the best photography editing apps for mobile.
- VSCO: Popular for its unique film-like presets and advanced editing tools. While some features require a subscription, its free tools are still quite capable for quick and stylish edits.
- Lightroom Mobile: A streamlined version of its desktop counterpart, Lightroom Mobile allows for powerful RAW editing and synchronization with your cloud library, making it ideal for photographers who work across multiple devices.
The Hardware Backbone: Best Photography Editing Computer & Monitor Setup
Your editing experience is only as good as the hardware supporting it. Image sw
Choosing the best photography editing computer and the best photography editing monitor is crucial for efficient workflow, accurate color representation, and a frustration-free editing process.
The Best Photography Editing Laptop & Desktop Specs
Whether you opt for a desktop or a laptop, certain specifications are non-negotiable for smooth photography editing.
- Processor CPU: A powerful multi-core processor is key. Intel Core i7 or i9 10th generation or newer or AMD Ryzen 7 or 9 are excellent choices. Editing software like Photoshop and Lightroom are increasingly optimized to utilize multiple cores, making tasks like rendering and applying complex filters much faster. For instance, Puget Systems’ benchmarks often show significant performance gains with higher-core-count CPUs for specific photo editing tasks.
- RAM Memory: This is perhaps the most critical component for multitasking and handling large files.
- Minimum: 16GB is a good starting point, especially if you’re primarily editing JPEGs or smaller RAW files.
- Recommended: 32GB is the sweet spot for most professional photographers. It allows you to run multiple applications simultaneously e.g., Photoshop, Lightroom, and a web browser without slowdowns, and it’s essential for editing high-resolution RAW files or working with layers.
- Optimal: 64GB or more is beneficial for those working with extremely large files e.g., medium format camera files, extensive layering, or video editing alongside photography.
- Storage SSD vs. HDD:
- Primary Drive Operating System & Software: An NVMe SSD Solid State Drive is absolutely essential. The read/write speeds of NVMe SSDs often upwards of 3000-7000 MB/s are significantly faster than traditional SATA SSDs around 500 MB/s or HDDs around 100-150 MB/s. This dramatically speeds up boot times, application loading, and file access. Aim for at least a 500GB or 1TB NVMe SSD for your operating system and editing programs.
- Secondary Drive Photo Storage: For your vast photo library, a larger capacity SSD SATA or NVMe or a traditional HDD for archival purposes is suitable. Many professionals opt for a combination: a fast internal SSD for current projects and an external HDD or NAS Network Attached Storage for long-term archiving.
- Graphics Card GPU: While historically less critical than CPU and RAM for photo editing, modern editing software especially Photoshop and Lightroom increasingly leverages GPU acceleration for certain tasks like rendering, image resizing, and applying AI-powered filters. A dedicated graphics card from NVIDIA GeForce RTX or GTX series or AMD Radeon RX series with at least 4GB 8GB recommended of VRAM can provide a noticeable performance boost. For example, NVIDIA’s Studio Drivers are specifically optimized for creative applications.
The Best Photography Editing Monitor: Color Accuracy is King
A high-quality monitor is paramount for accurate color grading and detail assessment.
What you see on your screen must accurately represent the final output.
- Panel Type:
- IPS In-Plane Switching: This is the gold standard for photo editing. IPS panels offer superior color accuracy, wide viewing angles, and excellent contrast ratios compared to TN Twisted Nematic or VA Vertical Alignment panels.
- Color Gamut Coverage:
- sRGB: The standard color space for web and general display. A monitor with at least 99-100% sRGB coverage is a good starting point.
- Adobe RGB: A wider color space, crucial for professional print work. Look for monitors with 90-99% Adobe RGB coverage if printing is a significant part of your workflow.
- DCI-P3: Increasingly important, especially for video editing and HDR content, but beneficial for photography as well, offering a wider gamut than sRGB.
- Resolution:
- 2560×1440 1440p or QHD: A great balance between screen real estate and performance, suitable for monitors from 27 inches upwards.
- 3840×2160 4K or UHD: Offers immense detail and clarity, allowing you to see your images with incredible sharpness. While demanding on your GPU, 4K monitors are becoming increasingly popular for their visual fidelity.
- Calibration: Even the best monitor needs calibration. Invest in a hardware calibrator like those from X-Rite or Datacolor Spyder to ensure your monitor displays accurate colors over time. This is critical for consistent results across different devices and print outputs. A study by Epson found that regularly calibrated monitors lead to significantly fewer print errors and improved color matching.
- Screen Size: 27 inches is a popular sweet spot, offering ample workspace without being overwhelming. Larger monitors 32 inches and up can provide an even more immersive experience, especially with 4K resolution.
Essential Editing Techniques: Beyond Basic Adjustments
Once you have your best photography editing software and a capable machine, understanding key editing techniques is the next step.
Editing is not about making a photo look “fake” but about refining it, enhancing its natural beauty, and realizing your creative vision.
Exposure and Contrast Correction
These are fundamental adjustments that lay the groundwork for all other edits.
- Exposure: Correcting overall brightness. Overexposed areas lose detail in highlights, and underexposed areas lose detail in shadows. Use sliders like Exposure, Highlights, and Shadows to recover detail and balance the image.
- Contrast: The difference between the light and dark areas. Increasing contrast can add punch and depth, while decreasing it can create a softer, more subtle look. Be careful not to overdo it, which can lead to harsh-looking images.
- White Balance: Ensuring colors are accurate by correcting for different lighting conditions e.g., warm indoor lighting, cool outdoor shade. Use the eyedropper tool or adjust temperature and tint sliders. Incorrect white balance is a common issue, with many beginner photos showing an orange or blue cast.
Color Grading and Enhancement
Color is a powerful emotional tool.
Thoughtful color grading can transform the mood and impact of your photos.
- Saturation & Vibrance:
- Saturation: Increases the intensity of all colors equally. Can easily lead to oversaturated, unnatural-looking images.
- Vibrance: Intelligently boosts the intensity of less saturated colors while leaving already saturated colors mostly untouched. This is generally a safer and more subtle way to enhance colors.
- HSL Hue, Saturation, Luminance Panel: This allows precise control over individual color ranges. You can change the hue color itself, saturation intensity, or luminance brightness of specific colors e.g., make blues more vibrant, or dull down greens. This is incredibly powerful for selective color adjustments.
- Split Toning/Color Grading Wheels: These tools allow you to add specific color casts to your highlights and shadows, creating distinct moods or film-like effects. For instance, adding warm tones to highlights and cool tones to shadows is a popular technique for cinematic looks.
Retouching and Healing
For portraits, product photography, or any image where imperfections need to be removed, retouching tools are indispensable. Coolest art
- Spot Healing Brush/Clone Stamp: Used to remove small blemishes, dust spots, or unwanted elements by sampling nearby pixels. For example, a photographer might spend 15-20% of their total editing time on detailed retouching for a single portrait.
- Frequency Separation: An advanced technique that separates image details textures, blemishes from colors and tones. This allows you to work on each layer independently, making skin retouching smoother while preserving natural texture.
- Dodge & Burn: Selectively lightening dodging or darkening burning areas of an image to sculpt light, add dimension, or draw attention to specific elements. This technique originates from traditional darkroom methods.
Sharpening and Noise Reduction
These adjustments help in refining image clarity and cleaning up imperfections.
- Sharpening: Enhances edge contrast to make details appear crisper. Too much sharpening can introduce artifacts or halos. It’s often best applied selectively or as a final step.
- Noise Reduction: Reduces visual “noise” graininess that appears in photos taken at high ISO settings or in low light. There are two main types: luminance noise monochromatic grain and color noise colored speckles. Over-applying noise reduction can lead to a loss of fine detail and a plastic-like appearance.
Workflow Optimization: Efficiency in Photography Editing Programs
An optimized workflow can drastically reduce the time spent editing, allowing you to focus more on photography itself.
This involves smart organization, batch processing, and leveraging presets.
Image Organization and Management
Before you even begin editing, having a robust system for organizing your photos is paramount.
This makes finding specific images and managing your library much easier.
- Folders and Subfolders: Create a logical hierarchy for your images. A common approach is
Year > Month > Day - Event Name
. For example,2023 > 2023-10 > 2023-10-26 - Family Gathering
. - Keywords and Tags: Utilize your editing software’s metadata capabilities like Lightroom’s Keywords or Bridge’s Keywords Panel to add descriptive tags to your images. This allows you to quickly search for photos based on content e.g., “beach,” “sunset,” “wedding,” “dog”. According to a survey by the Photo Metadata Council, photographers who consistently use keywords spend 30% less time searching for images.
- Ratings and Flags: Use star ratings e.g., 5 stars for selects, 1 star for rejects or flags e.g., “pick,” “rejected” during initial culling to quickly identify the best images to edit.
Batch Processing and Presets
These tools are game-changers for efficiency, especially when dealing with large volumes of similar images.
- Batch Editing: Apply the same adjustments to multiple images simultaneously. If you shot an entire series under similar lighting conditions, you can edit one image, then sync those adjustments to all others. This is a core strength of programs like Lightroom and Capture One.
- Presets/Actions: These are pre-defined sets of adjustments or commands that you can apply with a single click.
- Photoshop Actions: Record a series of steps in Photoshop e.g., resizing, adding a watermark, applying a specific filter and save them as an action. This automates repetitive tasks.
- Custom Export Settings: Create export presets for common destinations e.g., “Web – Full Res,” “Instagram – Square,” “Print – 300 DPI”. This saves time and ensures your images are exported with the correct dimensions, quality, and color profile for their intended use.
Advanced Techniques and Specialized Editing
Beyond the basics, there are numerous advanced techniques and specialized areas of photography editing that can take your images to the next level.
Layer-Based Editing and Compositing
This is where programs like Photoshop truly shine.
Layers allow for non-destructive, highly controlled editing and the creation of complex images.
- Understanding Layers: Each adjustment, image, or graphic element exists on its own layer, which can be manipulated independently. This means you can adjust opacity, blending modes, and order without affecting other parts of the image.
- Compositing: Combining multiple images to create a single, cohesive scene. This is used in real estate photography combining different exposures for HDR, product photography swapping elements, and creative photography combining unrelated elements to form new realities.
HDR High Dynamic Range Photography
HDR techniques help overcome the limitations of a camera’s dynamic range, capturing detail in both very bright and very dark areas of a scene. Video editing techniques
- Bracketing: Taking multiple exposures of the same scene at different brightness levels e.g., -2 EV, 0 EV, +2 EV.
- Tone Mapping: Converting the 32-bit HDR image into an 8-bit or 16-bit image suitable for display, while compressing the dynamic range in an aesthetically pleasing way.
Focus Stacking
For macro or product photography where a narrow depth of field is common, focus stacking ensures sharpness from front to back.
- Taking Multiple Shots: Capturing several images of the same subject, each focused on a slightly different plane.
- Software Alignment and Merging: Editing software aligns these images and merges them, taking the sharpest parts from each to create a single image that is sharp throughout. This is crucial for scientific photography or detailed product shots where every part of the subject must be in focus.
Panoramas and Photomerge
Stitching multiple images together to create a wider field of view than a single shot can capture.
- Overlap: Ensuring sufficient overlap between individual shots typically 25-50%.
The Best Photography Editing Practices: Ethical Considerations & Learning
Beyond the tools and techniques, adopting a mindful approach to editing is crucial.
Non-Destructive Editing
This is a core principle of modern photography editing.
- Working on Copies: Always work on copies of your original files, or better yet, use software that supports non-destructive editing like Lightroom, Capture One, or working with layers in Photoshop.
- Preserving Originals: Non-destructive editing means that your adjustments are stored as instructions or metadata, not permanently applied to the original image file. This allows you to revert to the original or make changes at any point without degrading the image quality. This is vital for maintaining the integrity of your work.
Calibration and Color Management
Ensuring your entire workflow is color-managed is essential for consistent and accurate results, especially if you print your work.
- Monitor Calibration: As mentioned earlier, regularly calibrating your monitor with a hardware device is critical. This adjusts your monitor’s display to industry standards and creates a color profile.
- Color Profiles ICC Profiles: Understand and utilize color profiles sRGB, Adobe RGB, ProPhoto RGB throughout your workflow, from camera settings to editing software and export. This ensures that colors are accurately represented from capture to final output. For instance, most web content uses sRGB, while professional printers often prefer Adobe RGB or even ProPhoto RGB for wider color gamuts.
Continuous Learning and Practice
- Online Tutorials: Platforms like YouTube, Skillshare, and Udemy offer countless tutorials for every skill level and software.
- Workshops and Courses: More structured learning can provide deeper insights and personalized feedback.
- Practice Regularly: The best way to improve is by doing. Experiment with different tools, try new techniques, and develop your unique editing style. Reviewing your work and comparing it to professional examples can also offer valuable insights.
- Community Engagement: Participate in online forums, photography groups, or local clubs. Sharing your work and getting feedback can be incredibly beneficial for growth. Reddit communities like r/photocritique and r/postprocessing are active hubs for discussions and learning.
The Future of Photography Editing: AI and Automation
These technologies are poised to revolutionize how we interact with our images.
AI-Powered Enhancements
Many modern editing programs are already integrating AI to automate and improve traditionally complex tasks.
- Automatic Subject Selection: AI can precisely identify and select subjects, skies, or specific objects within an image with remarkable accuracy, making masking and selective adjustments far easier. For example, Adobe Photoshop’s “Select Subject” feature has seen continuous improvement, reaching over 90% accuracy in many scenarios.
- AI-Powered Noise Reduction and Upscaling: Tools like Topaz Labs’ DeNoise AI and Gigapixel AI use deep learning to intelligently reduce noise while preserving detail, or to upscale images to larger resolutions without significant quality loss. This is particularly beneficial for older, lower-resolution photos.
- Content-Aware Fill: Photoshop’s Content-Aware Fill uses AI to intelligently fill in missing parts of an image after an object has been removed, blending seamlessly with the surrounding pixels.
Automation and Smart Presets
AI is also driving more intelligent automation, making editing more accessible and efficient.
- Adaptive Presets: Future presets might not just apply fixed adjustments but intelligently adapt to each image’s unique characteristics e.g., lighting, subject, content to deliver optimal results.
- One-Click Optimizations: AI can analyze an image and suggest optimal adjustments for exposure, color, and contrast, providing a starting point for further manual refinement. This is particularly useful for beginners or for quick edits on a large batch of similar images.
- Smart Cropping and Composition Guides: AI could analyze the content of an image and suggest ideal crop ratios or compositional guidelines to enhance visual appeal.
Ethical Considerations of AI in Photography
As AI becomes more prevalent, it also brings up important ethical discussions.
- Authenticity and Manipulation: The ease with which AI can alter images raises questions about authenticity, especially in photojournalism or documentary photography. It becomes crucial for photographers to be transparent about the extent of their edits.
- Job Displacement: While AI is a tool, not a replacement, some worry about the impact on traditional retouching and editing roles. However, it’s more likely that AI will augment human creativity, freeing up time for more artistic and complex tasks.
- Bias in Datasets: AI models are trained on vast datasets. If these datasets are biased, the AI’s output could reflect or even amplify those biases. This is an ongoing area of research and development.
By investing in the right tools, honing your skills, and embracing the power of technology including upcoming AI capabilities, you can transform your photographic vision into stunning realities, ensuring your images stand out in a visually saturated world. Pdf to wordperfect
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best photography editing software overall?
The “best” photography editing software depends on individual needs. For professional comprehensive work, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are industry standards. For a powerful one-time purchase alternative, Affinity Photo is excellent. For free options, GIMP or Darktable are highly capable.
What is the best photography editing app for mobile?
For mobile editing, Snapseed free, powerful, intuitive and Lightroom Mobile syncs with desktop, powerful RAW editing are widely considered the best photography editing apps. VSCO is also popular for its aesthetic filters.
What is the best photography editing software for beginners?
For beginners, Lightroom with its intuitive interface and organizational features or Skylum Luminar Neo known for its AI-powered simplicity are great choices. For free software, GIMP or Snapseed mobile offer robust tools once you get past a slight learning curve.
What is the best photography editing laptop?
The best photography editing laptop should have at least an Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 processor, 16GB-32GB RAM, a fast NVMe SSD, and a dedicated graphics card NVIDIA GeForce RTX or AMD Radeon RX series. Apple’s MacBook Pro with M-series chips is also a top contender.
What is the best photography editing software free?
The best free photography editing software includes GIMP a versatile image editor akin to Photoshop, Darktable a powerful RAW photo editor similar to Lightroom, and RawTherapee another strong RAW processing tool.
What is the best photography editing computer?
A high-performance desktop PC for photography editing should feature a powerful multi-core CPU Intel i7/i9 or AMD Ryzen 7/9, 32GB+ RAM, a dedicated GPU 8GB+ VRAM, and a fast NVMe SSD as its primary drive.
What is the best photography editing monitor?
The best photography editing monitor typically uses an IPS panel for accurate colors and wide viewing angles. Look for high sRGB 99-100% and ideally Adobe RGB 90%+ coverage, with a resolution of 1440p or 4K. Regular calibration with a hardware calibrator is essential.
What are the best photography editing programs for Mac?
For Mac users, Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are widely used. Affinity Photo is a powerful one-time purchase alternative. Apple’s native Photos app offers basic editing, and Capture One Pro is excellent for RAW processing and tethered shooting.
What is the best photography editing software according to Reddit?
Reddit discussions on “best photography editing software reddit” often highlight Adobe Lightroom for workflow and Adobe Photoshop for detailed retouching. Affinity Photo is frequently praised as a strong subscription-free alternative, and Darktable or GIMP are popular mentions for free options.
Is Photoshop or Lightroom better for photography editing?
They serve different purposes. Lightroom is ideal for organizing, batch processing, and non-destructive RAW development of large photo libraries. Photoshop is best for detailed pixel-level retouching, compositing, graphic design, and complex manipulations that require layers and masks. Many professionals use both in conjunction. Changing background in photo
How much RAM do I need for photography editing?
For casual editing, 16GB of RAM is a minimum. For serious photographers working with high-resolution RAW files, layers, and multiple applications, 32GB of RAM is highly recommended and often considered the sweet spot. 64GB or more is beneficial for extremely large files or professional-level multitasking.
Do I need a dedicated graphics card for photo editing?
While not as critical as CPU or RAM, a dedicated graphics card GPU is increasingly beneficial for photo editing. Modern software leverages GPU acceleration for tasks like rendering, image resizing, and AI-powered filters, providing a noticeable performance boost. Aim for one with at least 4GB, ideally 8GB or more, of VRAM.
What is non-destructive editing?
Non-destructive editing means that your image adjustments are applied as a set of instructions or metadata, without permanently altering the original image file. This allows you to go back and modify or remove any edit at any time without degrading the original photo quality. Most professional RAW editors are non-destructive.
How important is monitor calibration for photo editing?
Monitor calibration is critically important for accurate photo editing. Without it, the colors and brightness you see on your screen may not match the actual output, leading to inconsistencies in prints or across different displays. A hardware calibrator ensures your monitor displays true colors.
What is RAW editing and why is it important?
RAW editing involves processing image files directly from your camera’s sensor without any in-camera compression or processing. RAW files contain much more data e.g., 12-bit or 14-bit depth compared to 8-bit for JPEGs, offering significantly more flexibility and latitude for adjustments like exposure, white balance, and shadow/highlight recovery without introducing artifacts or quality loss.
Can I edit photos on a tablet?
Yes, you can edit photos on tablets, especially professional-grade ones like the Apple iPad Pro with apps like Lightroom Mobile, Affinity Photo, or Procreate. While they offer portability and touch interface benefits, they might not fully replace a desktop for complex tasks or managing very large libraries.
What is the difference between saturation and vibrance?
Saturation increases the intensity of all colors in an image equally, which can easily lead to unnatural, oversaturated results. Vibrance intelligently boosts the intensity of less saturated colors while leaving already saturated colors mostly untouched, resulting in a more subtle and natural enhancement.
What is HDR photography editing?
What is focus stacking in photography editing?
How can I make my photos look professional?
To make photos look professional, focus on good initial capture composition, lighting, then use editing to enhance: correct exposure and white balance, refine colors, apply selective sharpening/noise reduction, remove distractions retouching, and develop a consistent editing style. Learning from tutorials and practicing regularly are key.
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