Before & After with Lightroom

I've been playing around with Adobe Lightroom and I have to say it's pretty fun. So many presets, so little time :)
Below is a quick before and after I did with a picture taken on my iPhone. I can't wait to get an actual camera.... but for now, this will have to do.

This is the original photo. It was a bright sunny day and yet the photo turned out grey and dim. The colours look dirty and feel flat. Even the gravel path looks pathetically drab.

So I brightened things up a little bit. Made the greens greener and the path happier and took away all the humdrum gloom and doomy grey. See the before and after below.

Cafe Press Store

So I've decided to open a Cafe Press store (http://www.cafepress.ca/slbphoto). So far it contains only one design however other designs will soon follow. 

 

I think I'm going to order myself a mug!

Making a Statement

I had an idea today. One that I'm sure many people have had before me but I was still pretty impressed with myself nonetheless. I was thinking about what kind of photography I wanted to try and do (when I finally get my camera... (which will hopefully be soon).

Nature shots... over done
Macro shots... love 'em but they're over done
Portraits... would have to deal with people
Stock Photography... perhaps

Then it hit me! Why not pictures that really SAY something... not anything important really, just something.

Then I realized that it wasn't really my idea. Caleb mentioned it the other day and I guess it's been marinating in my head for a while.

So, pictures that say something. Perhaps a common witticism in image form. Since I lack a camera I decided to try to make one in photoshop so here is my first attempt.

 Silly I know; but it's a little cute... isn't it?

Before and After

So my sister is always complaining that most of the pictures we have of her make it look as though she has no hair because she has it pulled back in a pony tail. The no hair phenomenon bothers her so much that she has often requested I photo-shop some hair onto her pictures. This is easier said than done especially for an amateur like myself... but I gave it the old college try. (Stayed up playing video games and drinking and then rushed the project at the last minute....  : )   .... I think I passed.)

Here is the before picture I chose. This is my sister and our niece at our aunt's 65th birthday party. Notice her hair is pulled back which makes it look as though she has no hair.


Before adding hair (which looks very photo-shopped in the end product) I decided to do some general touch up first.

If you notice I touched up the teeth, the reflection on the nose and glasses and fixed her eyebrows (way less painful than tweezing)    Now comes the hair (per her request).

And that is that. As I said you can obviously tell the hair was photo-shopped. I'll have to keep practicing and maybe learn some new tricks but for now this will have to do.

Autumn Leaves

There is something about this photo I just love exactly the way it is. Perhaps I may play with it a bit.

Maybe, play up the brightness a little... sharpen a few edges, brighten the colours of the leaves a little.

What do you think? Better or worse? I like how the leaves pop more.

Gawd I wish I had a half decent camera instead of having to take pics with my iPhone.

Oh well... some day.

Let's go Fly a Kite

I love pictures that are all black and white except for a few touches of colour. A friend of mine did a great one of a group of people at the "Walk for the Cure" fundraiser that was all monochrome except for a few splashes of bright pink. It was really striking.

So here's one I did of my husband flying our daughters kite. (Please forgive the quality of the picture. I really do need to get myself a half decent camera).

The original picture turned out pretty good. I think it has a nice balance between ground and sky and my husband and the kite are just a little off center. The kite itself stands out well against the light blue sky but my husband seems a little lost amongst the fence and houses in the background.

BEFORE

AFTER

The black and white background really makes Caleb stand out in the foreground and the kite still stands out well on the light sky. I'm still not 100% happy though.... perhaps if I were to make the colours of the kite a little more vibrant and soften the houses...

Not too shabby. The kite is definitely brighter. Time to call it a night!

The early squirrel gets the nut

Last winter I threw a few leftover nuts into my back yard and a few minutes later we had a visitor. He stuck around for a little while. Long enough for me to get a few good shots and even a short video or two.

Looking at the photo now the snow looks grey because our backyard was cast in a shadow from the house and the squirrel looks a little blurry and he doesn't stand out very well on the grey-ish background.

So I brought the picture into photoshop. The first thing I did was duplicate the background layer so that I have something to go back to in case I screw up. This was a lesson I learned the hard way.

I added an Unsharp Mask (but forgot to record the settings... doh!) and a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (+38/+22 respectively) and surprisingly enough... that was it!

You can tell it was snowing at the time the picture was taken. I like the little specks of snow but I think this could be a great stock photo (had it been taken with a good camera) if I removed the flecks. So I took the handy dandy clone tool and...

 

Voila!