How I edit!!
“I love to take, process and share photos - it fills me up.”
I haven’t always liked editing. I took pride in thinking I didn’t have to any editing to my photos. I have changed my tune because a basic edit can enhance a photo for the better in so many ways. I don’t do a whole lot of editing mostly because my style doesn’t require a whole lot. I wanted to show you how I edit my photos. I chose two photos I’m going to go through step by step and show you how I get it done. I will start with the with the one of me in the yellow sweater.
I use Lightroom CC to edit my photos. The first thing I do is use the angle tool to straighten the photo as much as possible. I also use the aspect tool to crop the photo when I have that tab open. The crop dimensions I use depend on what I’m trying to do with the photo and where the photo is going to live. I decided to use the 16x9 because it will eventually go on Instagram and I’ve heard that is a good crop for that.
It’s now time to play with with the sliders to change the image. The sliders in lightroom is what you used to change the photo and can be seen on the right side on the photo above. I will usually hit auto to get me started and then play around from there. There are times I know exactly want to change on the photo but there are other times I’m not sure so I start with auto. I normally don’t just leave it on auto but there have been a case I have done that.
I’ve really gotten into presets lately and they help with me being creative. Presets change sliders without me having to do it so it saves time. I don’t always use presets because after I have done the previous step of adjusting the sliders I have the photo where I want it. I sometimes will play with the presets even though the photo is where I want it just to see what happens. It’s been fun to play with them to see the different effects it has. I have bought presets and I’m beginning to learn which presets do what and going for the ones that I know will get the effect I want. The photo below is the finished product.
“Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.”
I love going to the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, IL and I can’t wait to get back. I had a couple of similar photos to the one above and I went with editing them just because I happen to like them slightly more at the time. The process of editing this photo is going to be the same as the self-portrait put I want to take that rock out on the left side of the screen. As with the first photo, I straighten it and crop it like the last one which is 16x9. I also set it to auto on changing to get a starting place to the settings.
When I was going through the presets I found that I liked but didn’t love on this photo. I decided to copy the settings and keep going through the presets to see if there was one that I loved.
I finally decided on a preset and did a before and after(see below) to see which I liked more and I decided that I don’t use the before and after nearly enough. I’m going to decided to start using it a lot more and it help make me decide what I wanted to do.
As far as that pesky rock is concerned I’m going to use the spot removal tool. The spot removal tool will take from another spot from the photo and replace it with what you want to remove. For the inquiring minds that want to know how to find the spot removal tool, if you look at the photo below and look on the panel on the right and see the circle with the arrow coming out of it. You can see it is highlighted in white. Before I click on that on the tool I zoom in to what I want to remove.
I adjust the size I want the tool to be and then start covering it over the rock so I can start removing it. Once I get the whole rock I will let go and I have it set up for Lightroom decide where to pull from and adjust from there. I did a little bit of adjusting after it decided but it did a good job so it didn’t take me to long to change it.
I’m happy with the way it came out. I love how the shadows play across the plants, door and the walls. I hope you enjoyed learning about my editing process. Thanks for making it this far. What did you enjoy about this blog post? Is this something that you like to see more off? Let me know in the comments below.
