It’s been a while since my last video on post-processing, so I figured I would do another one from my recent set of photos of Ayden. In particular, the shot of Ayden laying on the ground in Autumn, which I’ve given a warm feel and applied a texture to. I’d appreciate your thoughts on this, so leave ’em in the comments!
Remember, there are no rules when it comes to post-processing. Play around, experiment, develop.
If I had a pound for every time someone said “I love your photos, you must have a great camera”, I’d be able to buy all of Canon’s stock. It’s a backhanded compliment, and one that irritates me as I know anybody could get a cracking photo from a cheaper, entry level dSLR. Like the Canon 1100D. Here is a portrait I took of Ayden with the 1100D and 50mm. It produces a nice, crisp image wich I’ve done my usual processing on, and it looks just as good as other shots I’ve taken with my 5DMKIII. It’s not really about the body, but learning how to use it, equipping it with good glass, and practicing. Can I get an …
Something that is consistently said to me, and I thank those for their compliments, is that my photos have a “crisp, clean” feel to them. There’s no secret, I think that’s mostly achieved through a well exposed photo. I feel I’ve definitely got a groove I work to now, a style I’m developing from simply spending so much time taking photos. Today I tried something a little different, though, after taking the notion to desaturate one of the photos I took on Friday. I made a video, you can watch it on Vimeo. Let me know if you want more of these, or if they are a complete waste of my time.
This question was provoked by my latest shot of Indie for my 52 weeks of Indie project, but I generally shoot into the sun whenever I can. My shots also turn out pale because the sun naturally washes everything out, but you can easily bring back the detail and add contrast by using curves with your editing software of choice (mine is Aperture). Bring the curve down to beef up those midtones, then play around with it until you get the look you desire.
I use Aperture more, and yes, I like it better. Photoshop is so overwhelming, so intimidating. Aperture is a difference piece of software, though, and of course doesn’t pack anywhere close to all the features Photoshop has. PS has its place with me, though, when I’m wanting to drastically change the tone of an image. Working with different layers and changing the opacity, that I can’t do in Aperture.
Is there a particular photo you have in mind? I don’t fiddle too much in post-processing, I’m really conscious of not over-doing it. I once wrote about my basic image editing process in Aperture to give a photo ‘pop’, but for those with different tones I play around with curves, layers and opacity in Photoshop (I’ll go over this in more detail in the future seeing as a couple of people have now requested it).
For a photo like this, I made minor adjustments to contrast, saturation etc in Aperture — really simple. For this photo, I took it into Photoshop and played around with curves and different layers (What is it with me and dogs?).
