Editing

A few years ago we bought a "real" digital camera (as in one where you can change lenses and such).

A had a really nice film camera given to me by my grandma when I started getting into photography as a teenager.

But alas, film died out and digital won over.

I prefer film.

Always have.

Always will.

Film is much more an art, you hold up the camera, you press the button and "click".

What you took is what you got, and you did't know if it is any good until you got it developed.

Not so with digital.

Digital is more of a computer graphic type art. More of a science I would say.

You hold up the camera, you press the button and "click".

Then you look to see if you like it and retake it if necessary.

But it doesn't end there.

Then you can edit the photo.

You can make it lighter, darker, brighter colors, black and white, more contrast, less contrast, sharper, softer, you can erase things from the pictures entirely.

It's never ending all the editing you can do!

I love it and hate it.

Maybe more hate than love.

But here we are with a real digital camera and only a very basic photo editing program.

Then the Army gave Stephen an editing program because he was taking a lot of pictures at work.

(Thanks Army!)

It is a very nice, professional grade program, Photoshop CS4.

We installed it a couple weeks ago.

My brother-in-law, who has taught some photoshop classes, insured me that it was very user friendly and that I could just figure it out by messing around.

He's a big fat liar.

Or maybe I am just dumb.

Or both.

This thing has a million buttons and options and I have no clue how to use them!

And of course it came with no instructions.

So the first thing I did was go and buy a book on how to use it.

I chose one with very clear, step by step instructions.

The pictures I posted from hiking were my first stab at using the program.

Next I take on the more daunting task of the pictures from the in-laws visit, there are about 300 or so pictures.

Depending on how good the original picture is, it takes about 15 minutes or so per picture to edit.

You do the math.

Here are some before and afters to give you an idea of what this wonderful/horrible program can do.

Before:



After:



Before:



After:



Before:



After:



Now, some of you may be thinking "oh that's why the water looked so blue!" but believe me when I say, that is really what it looks like.

I have always hated landscape photography because, one, I was never good at it and two, it never looked like it did in person.

There were always some areas that seemed too bright while other areas were too dark and it was never as vibrant as it looked in person.

This program really fixes that.

Now the hard part is to edit the photos without them looking too overly processed.

I beg your patience as I work to find that balance.

(Complements and criticisms are always welcome, though I do prefer for the criticisms to be sandwiched between two complements. Its easier to swallow that way.)

Enjoy!