Friday, November 12, 2010

editing pictures

I don't usually edit my pictures. What you see here is the way I took them with my camera. I am trying to become a better photographer and I don't want that to include editing them because I don't have the time nor the computer space to edit all the pictures I take. Plus I don't have photoshop or any other fancy kind of program (though photoshop is on my list of things I would like to have). However I do have iphoto. Iphoto is an excellent tool for organizing your pictures. I don't upload all my pictures in iphoto, just the ones I might use somewhere else on my computer or crop or want to make black and white or sepia, something of that nature. I knew that I could crop, reduce red eye, blur, and do some special effects in iphoto but the other day I found the adjust button. You can change the contrast, saturation, exposure, etc. with this feature (although this is kinda what I consider cheating editing of your photos).

So I had uploaded all my disney photos to iphoto and today I was playing around with the 'adjust' button. These are two of my favorite photos from the trip that I wish could be better. Here is what I came up with so far:

Original



edited version



Original



edited version (the ears look weird but at least you can see them now)



What do you think? Better or not? Should I just leave the pictures alone?
Do any of you edit your photos on a regular basis? Why or why not?

6 comments:

Abbie Johnson said...

can I give my opinion? I think the B & B one is cropped too close. you cut off the feet and I like the background of the staircase. JMO!

Holly Aytes said...

Matt edits almost every picture! Ours kids almost always have red eye and he likes the lighting to be just right. He has shown me how to adjust the saturation, etc but I mostly leave it up to him. If it makes you feel better almost every good photographer edits every picture. That is one of the tricks Matt learned from the professionals he has talked with.

JenniferL. said...

I agree Abbie, plus I like the rose being in the background. I was just playing around. But I was real excited when I discovered I could lighten pictures and see Mickey's ears in the last one.

Paula Jennings said...

I edit a lot of my pics. I think you will have to pick and choose which ones to edit. Not all pictures need to be edited.

Unknown said...

I agree that the Mickey picture is much improved. I don't have a problem with editing pictures, because it can in many cases make them much better.

Of course, I think it is pretty obvious that I edit most of my pictures pretty heavily...

MamaK said...

I do agree with the Beauty and the Beast one, but the Mickey one is great! Where do you do your photo editing through? I do mine through my canon photo software that came with my DSLR or picnik.com. Although...I severely want photoshop..... :)