Playing with Photoshop

I have been interested in Photography for years. I love taking pictures of kids. Before I had my own, I used to sit my neice down and just click away on my camera. When I found out I was pregnant with Princess, I was blessed to be able to take a photography course as on of my last college courses. I have always been grateful for the experience. I learned that I had really good composition, but I was frustrated by my lack of contrast in many of my pics. Though I am still learning more about that, and other actual photography tricks, I have been amazed lately at what Photoshop can do!

My first thoughts about this came from a new blog I have been reading, mycharmingkids.net. This amazing woman has four small children, one on the way, and is a photographer, among other things. The link above goes specifically to the section on "Photography Lessons." Some of the tricks I knew, but I have been learning a lot. One thing I always lamented was that the colors in my photographs were not like I would see online or in magazines, etc. Well, as it turns out, I am not such a bad photographer. I just didn't know I was supposed to change everything in Photoshop. I am still really looking forward to taking better shots straight off the camera, but as "McK Mama" said on her site, "...I just love to take a super photograph straight out of my camera and kick it into high gear so that it becomes a super work of art."

So, I thought I would try a few of the tricks. I chose that photo because I knew it was flat, and I didn't try to make it perfect, but it is pretty cool how much more the photo stands out.

Before

After

While I enjoyed playing with this photo, and learning to work with the color, I was a little shocked later at some before and after photos that I found here. I knew photos in ads and magazines were edited, but I had no idea how much. I think the sad thing to me was how fake some of the people look. While photographers have always played with lighting and color in the dark room, I think the people in some of the photos from that link lost their character. (I especially disliked the cute girl whose freckles were airbrushed out. I like freckles!)

While I think I will play with my photos...fix the lighting, boost the color, etc...I don't ever want to change them so much that they are no longer the photos that I took.