Okay, I should preface this with a disclaimer: I am by no means a professional photographer. I don't claim to be in any way, shape or form. I'd like to be and I like to believe that it's something I could be good at, but right now, I'm just an amateur photography enthusiast. /end disclaimer
That being said, ever wonder how people get those gorgeous photos? The ones that look too pretty to be real? In two words: post processing. Even if you think your photo's absolutely perfect straight out of the camera, it can always use some tweaks and adjustments. With the price on Adobe Photoshop Elements hovering near $100 it's never been cheaper to do some photo editing. I use Adobe Photoshop to adjust my images (since it's the same program that I use anyway for my digital designs).
I've put together some side-by-sides of straight out of the camera and edited images to illustrate my points. In this first example a bit of cropping brings out my focus much better (the beautiful tree). I wanted the tree to be the focus, but it being dead center in the image is plain boring. In the end, it's still pretty centered but just slightly less so (if that makes sense). I've also cropped out some unnecessary clutter at the bottom of the photo and gave it a bit of a grounding element with the low brick wall on the right hand side.
I also enhanced the colors and tweaked the levels to make it more a vintage feel. The browns now really stand out and give it that "aged" look I was after.
For this second illustration, I was okay with the cropping of the image but I really wanted to show that vintage, rich brown color palette. Don't get me wrong, I think the original photo is just fine but I really wanted the texture and age of the Colosseum to come through. I think the second photo does a better job of this.
A third and final illustration for the day: adding textures. For the ambitious only, adding texture to a photo can make or break it in my opinion.
On the left, my straight out of the camera (SOOC) shot. On the right, the adjusted image, with a texture added (among other various adjustments). Adding the texture really makes the photo much more interesting, giving it some depth. Textures can be tricky so they aren't for the faint of heart, but the good news is that you can always undo it (don't you wish life had an undo button?!).
I always recommend saving your alterations as different files, rather than replacing your original. If you save over the original there's no getting it back. Plus, it provides a neat way to compare what you've done post-processing compared to the original.
There's several places out there that sell or even give away photoshop actions (a way of doing a quick one button photo edit) for those that are in a hurry or too timid to try editing completely manually. Let me know if you have any questions on where to find these or if you have any suggestions yourself on where to find them. I'd love to see your before and after shots if you have any!
