One thing I love to do is edit photographs to give them more visual interest and just to be more creative, considering my photographs as raw material to create further. I discovered I had a talent for using creative software by mistake! I've never had any formal training, but I have progressed as with most other areas of my life, self-teaching!
Im not just talking about lightening, contrast, color, although that is part of it, Im talking a complete transformation! The knowledge of using editing software is just as important as knowing how to use your camera! After all its only the beginning when that shutter is snapped!
You can download free trails of software, you can find "last years model" on ebay cheap--and you can find online editing sites such as Picnic a part of Flickr and Gimp. Just Google up a photo editing site. I personally cant use online sites because I'm on dial up, it would take an hour just to get it all opened up. So I purchased both the products I use from eBay. I use Paintshop Pro 9.0 and I also use Photoshop 7.0. I am still waiting for the creative suites to decline in price! I also have an older version of Illustrator.
Today I worked on this--I love HORSES!! I shot this one day while taking a bike ride there are horses near me I dont have any of my own anymore--and I took a few shots...they didnt scream masterpiece to me tho...so I wanted to increase the interest so here are some things I did with the photo.. the original
Flickr Ate my Photo
He is a pretty horse, but there is so much shadow and I got only his face..so all in all it is not a good photo!...Although I could go into detail here are the steps I used.
- duplicated the photo
- cropped only the face
- enhanced the saturation
- increased the contrast & brightness
- added 5 layers blank
- erased the background around face
- added a layer of sky clouds
- framed behind the head
- framed in front of the head
- erased top frame to allow nose to stick out
- flattened layers
And why stop there? I have some shots of a field of sunflowers so I copied, pasted onto a new layer and now I've got my horse nosing out of the photo to sniff some sunflowers!
And lastly, why not let my horse enjoy the field of Sunflowers...and so he escapes entirely and joins the flowers.
I know what you mean! Mostly I fiddle with shots that are not perfect.
ReplyDeleteDixxe, you are one talented woman.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't know where to start doing something like that, yet alone the patience. You make it sound so easy. A great end result.
Hi Dixxe,
ReplyDeleteI agree that editting is a fun. As well as you and "fourwinds...", I also mostly use photos that are not technically good and try to make them look either better or more interesting. I have used Paint Net before that is downloadable free of charge from the Internet but I have bought Adobe Photoshop Elements recently which is a cheaper variant of the famous Adobe Photoshop. It's cheaper, it's simpler but it offers a lot of possibilities and I like it.
By the way, I like most the penultimate picture, it's great. :-)
Thanks to all of you for the nice comments, Four Winds, I had a look at your work and its fantastic, and Keith is one of the best Bird Photographers I Know! Petra your work always looks very professional and very well done! So I am in great company!
ReplyDelete