When purchasing computer components for digital photography, there are several things to consider. One of the most important is RAM. You'll need plenty of RAM to keep things running quickly. A monitor with hardware control over the individual electron guns is essential. Adobe PhotoShop is considered to be the one critical image editor.

Printing at home lends itself to a number of image editor choices. However, printing commercially or sending files to a service bureau requires Adobe PhotoShop. The digital graphics art industry grew up with PhotoShop.

Digital photo editing, unlike it's film camera predecessors, can give its users the power to change reality. An example is in the O.J. Simpson trials when both Time and Newsweek used the same mug shot of Simpson. However, Time darkened his skin for dramatic affect. As a result, they were accused of using digital photography for sensationalizing or exploiting.