When I'm using my DSLR, I shoot almost exclusively in manual, and RAW when I can. While I do my best to tweak setting as I go, a lot of times I get a great photo that's just a bit too dim, or off-colour, or a little less sharp than I like.
As my photos have probably shown, I've gotten really into the "development" aspect of digital photography in the past year or so. I enjoy seeing what little tweaks I can make to my photos to make them stand out more, without detracting too much from what I was trying to capture.
I know I've had convos with a lot of you about photo developing and editing - let's see some before-and-afters! Below are a few I did of Finn in the yard tonight, as well as some developing/editing I did on the spot to a few old favorites.
With Finn shots, I usually try to focus on bringing out his eyes and markings - sharpness and warm colours. This photo was pretty good on its own, but a bit of sharpening, colour brightening and tweaking really makes it pop.
This photo of Finn and his tiger Skinneez (from Jessie!) really needed some TLC. Bad lighting where Finn was standing combined with the camera settings made this one dim and dull, despite it being sunny through the trees when the photo was taken. For this one, I played around with the exposure a little, and upped the contrast some. I also warmed it up and did some spot sharpening.
Similar to the last photo in terms of existing issues and the developing tricks I used. I used a bit higher contrast on this one, because I like the "pop" it gave the photo. Slightly lower exposure, too, though I might have liked it higher.
Even my favorite photo I've ever taken received a few tweaks. Mostly exposure and tone.
The photos in this set were very challenging. They were all taken on my living room sofa, with a McGuyver'd lighting and diffusion setup. The lighting wasn't as bright as I'd have liked, so I had to resort to using a high ISO... the photos came out quite grainy. I used sharpening and luminance filters to filter out some of the grainyness. I also boosted the contrast and tweaked the colours and tones for a real studio feel. These made me want to practice more with indoor shooting.
I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, BTW. It's a bit of a hefty price tag, but no other software compares to it. Every professional and serious hobbyist digital photographer should try to save some money and invest in it!
Share some of yours!
As my photos have probably shown, I've gotten really into the "development" aspect of digital photography in the past year or so. I enjoy seeing what little tweaks I can make to my photos to make them stand out more, without detracting too much from what I was trying to capture.
I know I've had convos with a lot of you about photo developing and editing - let's see some before-and-afters! Below are a few I did of Finn in the yard tonight, as well as some developing/editing I did on the spot to a few old favorites.
With Finn shots, I usually try to focus on bringing out his eyes and markings - sharpness and warm colours. This photo was pretty good on its own, but a bit of sharpening, colour brightening and tweaking really makes it pop.
This photo of Finn and his tiger Skinneez (from Jessie!) really needed some TLC. Bad lighting where Finn was standing combined with the camera settings made this one dim and dull, despite it being sunny through the trees when the photo was taken. For this one, I played around with the exposure a little, and upped the contrast some. I also warmed it up and did some spot sharpening.
Similar to the last photo in terms of existing issues and the developing tricks I used. I used a bit higher contrast on this one, because I like the "pop" it gave the photo. Slightly lower exposure, too, though I might have liked it higher.
Even my favorite photo I've ever taken received a few tweaks. Mostly exposure and tone.
The photos in this set were very challenging. They were all taken on my living room sofa, with a McGuyver'd lighting and diffusion setup. The lighting wasn't as bright as I'd have liked, so I had to resort to using a high ISO... the photos came out quite grainy. I used sharpening and luminance filters to filter out some of the grainyness. I also boosted the contrast and tweaked the colours and tones for a real studio feel. These made me want to practice more with indoor shooting.
I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, BTW. It's a bit of a hefty price tag, but no other software compares to it. Every professional and serious hobbyist digital photographer should try to save some money and invest in it!
Share some of yours!
