Don’t Be Afraid!!
Friday, July 25th, 2008Hello all! Sorry for the late post!! A big thank you to Andrea who reminded me it was Friday! OOOPS! Does that ever happen to you… losing track of what day it is!? Yikes! My DH says I have an excuse (mostly I think he’s just being nice…), cause we’ve had not one, but TWO separate floods (smaller ones, but still), yes TWO in the last two weeks! So I’m all messed up! Ok, enough of that…
It has taken me a while to get used to the fact that I don’t have to settle for raw photos. What is a raw photo you ask? I virgin photo, if you will, exactly as your camera takes it. After seeing what can be done in Photoshop (or other similar program) I decided to try playing around with the settings on my photos before I used them in LOs. (If any of you want gorgeous examples of this, check out Britt’s photo blog here. She’s fantastic!!)
So I decided to play around with the VERY few settings I know (I use PSE 3), and amp up my photos. It really takes very little effort to make a HUGE difference! I use 2 or 3 separate tools to alter my photos, depending on what it takes to get the desired effect:
1. First, my very best friend, Brightness/Contrast. I use this ALL the time! If you have a washed out photo or one that isn’t as vibrant as you want, adjust the contrast! It makes all the difference!
2. Hue/Saturation. Hue is great if you want to change the shade of a color in your photo. I don’t use it a lot, but if I need it, it’s great!
3. Hue/Saturation. Saturation also helps to make your entire photo more vibrant. Sometimes you will also need to play with the Lightness/Darkness when using saturation, just to keep a “real” feel to the photo. These are just a FEW of the things that you can do to make a photo POP! Don’t be afraid! Just play around with those settings, and any others you find that are amazing, to make your photo unique and exactly what you want them to be!
Here are a couple of my recent photos that I’ve enhanced to be more to my liking:
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After:
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After:
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So remember, next time you’re disappointed that your photo didn’t turn out exactly how you thought, play around with the photo effects and see if you can make it exactly how you pictured! You aren’t going to ruin it (just be sure to save it under a different name before you make any changes permanent) and you just make come up with the perfect picture! Have fun and enjoy your weekend!!
