Photo Tutorial: Back to Basics/Improving Our Photos

[PrincessInOz]

Mood - Using Lighting


Using f/16 aperture to get the starburst effect from the bright sun, I hope this captures the mood of a happy, normal afternoon in the city.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Mood - the effect of Fog
Taken at Sunrise at Airey's Inlet.



The dawn, with the promise of the day rising ahead of you.






And because I seem to think in black and white........the mood changes to a deeper, darker note.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Mood - Using Lighting to create mood


I find that mood isn't just limited to the natural/landscape world. Given one of the points is to be aware of lighting and the mood it can create, here's my take on how it can be used for portraits.

Meet the Caterpillar in an Alice in Wonderland themed shoot!

I positioned the Caterpillar for side and back lighting to create a near (but not quite) high key effect. Its a bright and open mood for this image.



In the other side of the room, there were louvre blinds on the window. Using the light and dark patterns, we have a more sombre and mysterious Caterpillar.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Composition - and the importance of a Subject



A beautiful field of canola flowers, with the track giving it a leading line.





Pretty, but there really isn't a story to this image other than a field of canola.




Add a Subject to the image.





For me, the second image tells a more compelling story.

What is it that the tog is seeing through his camera?
It calls to me......come take this picture. See what I see.

 

[PrincessInOz]

This one ticks a few of the concepts that we've been exploring thus far.








There is a subject.
You could pretend that the reflected light on the salt base forms a leading line towards the darkness of the fog in the horizon.
It has a 'rule of thirds' composition.
There is the sense of dimension in the image, a consequence of having a number of other people in the far distance.
There is texture in the foreground.
Its definitely moody.

 

[kimmar067]

I really enjoyed your color examples! Thanks to everyone who participated!

Color is one of my favorite things about photos.

Some more of my own:

I think we all know where these next two are from

View attachment 753033

View attachment 753034

.... I'm drawing a blank - I've got nothing....

[ ]

 

[kimmar067]

Do you get the feeling that something ominous is about to happen?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Composition - and the importance of a Subject



A beautiful field of canola flowers, with the track giving it a leading line.


View attachment 753119


Pretty, but there really isn't a story to this image other than a field of canola.




Add a Subject to the image.

View attachment 753120



For me, the second image tells a more compelling story.

What is it that the tog is seeing through his camera?
It calls to me......come take this picture. See what I see.

The man being in the second photo does add a lot of visual interest to the photo.

This one ticks a few of the concepts that we've been exploring thus far.





View attachment 753122


There is a subject.
You could pretend that the reflected light on the salt base forms a leading line towards the darkness of the fog in the horizon.
It has a 'rule of thirds' composition.
There is the sense of dimension in the image, a consequence of having a number of other people in the far distance.
There is texture in the foreground.
Its definitely moody.

Nice!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

.... I'm drawing a blank - I've got nothing....

[ ]

Those are from World Showcase! (Sorry!)
The first one is outside China, around where the umbrellas are.
And the second one is at the entrance to WS, that’s one of the gift shops near the entrance in the background.
I love the bokeh so if I can make it happen, I’ll try!

 

[kimmar067]

Those are from World Showcase! (Sorry!)
The first one is outside China, around where the umbrellas are.
And the second one is at the entrance to WS, that’s one of the gift shops near the entrance in the background.
I love the bokeh so if I can make it happen, I’ll try!

I was just kidding...I knew the locations.... [nice pics, btw...]....actually, I thought that the 'rose' pic was from the GF....that roof in the background looked like it...

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I was just kidding...I knew the locations.... [nice pics, btw...]....actually, I thought that the 'rose' pic was from the GF....that roof in the background looked like it...

Haha! Hmm, I think maybe you are right about the second one, I think it is the GF!
I’ve got pictures here flying all over the place these days!

 

[kimmar067]

Haha! Hmm, I think maybe you are right about the second one, I think it is the GF!
I’ve got pictures here flying all over the place these days!

....well, there ya go!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Well since @kimmar067 is here, now might be a good time to move on another concept: Editing.

And remember, we’re talking basics here, but if anyone wants to post more advanced examples, that’s ok, too.

I also welcome any help with this topic because it’s big one to approach. Nor is it really my thing - I’m one of those people who strives to get the shot right in camera, first and foremost. (I spent a lot of years playing around with RAW files and editing and eventually, with all that practice, found I was pretty happy the way my images were coming out “as is” and I really didn’t need to edit much. YMMV.) I know some really enjoy the technical aspect of photography, so it’s individual.

I think though that it’s good for all of us, regardless of our skill level and regardless of what kind of camera we use - to know how to at least do some basic editing. You don’t even have to use Photoshop, every camera comes with editing software, including smartphones. And honestly with smartphones, they make it really easy with just a few steps right on the phone. (In my case I use Apple software on an iPad Pro as my photos are on the Cloud.) Photoshop has become easier than ever to use, though, too, with a simplified App, which doesn’t require a lot of experience to use. (My DD surprised me recently when she fixed a photo using the Photoshop App and she had never used it before.)

So all things to try!

I’m thinking that many of us today, including many reading here, may be using smartphones to get their shots.
What I want to stress is that sometimes even a little bit of basic editing can make our photos go from ordinary, to great, just by straightening, cropping out some clutter, brightening or adding a little extra color, etc.

So let’s see if we can at least start this section. Remember, this thread is all about learning.

What is basic photo editing?

What Is Photo Editing? Photo editing (also called post-processing or postproduction) is the process in digital photography of making adjustments to photographs in a photo editing program. It's digital photography's version of a darkroom, where photos can be tweaked after a photography shoot.

(These links aren’t exactly what I want to say - I was thinking simpler than that - but they do highlight some important features of editing. Don’t be intimidated if you haven’t heard some of the terms before, we can keep it simple, and we can also talk about any of the individual concepts like using a Histogram or White Balance if people want to!)

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/basics-photo-editing-18113/

https://fixthephoto.com/photo-editing-for-beginners.html

Here is one specifically for iPhone users:

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/edit-photos-and-videos-iphb08064d57/ios

ETA Adding this one, geared toward beginners

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4619451

 

[Pea-n-Me]

A week or so ago I asked @kimmar067 if I could use one of her pictures for this one and she graciously said yes! (Thank you kimmar!)

I saw one she’d posted on a POD thread and I really liked the bones of it. With some basic editing, it went from good, to really nice!!

Original




After cropping (removed pillar and porch rail, essentially honing in) and straightening



And talk about mood! I can pretty much feel myself there at the GF perhaps about to go out for the evening!
It really gives off a special “Night at Disney” type vibe! So, great shot, kimmar!

What other examples do we have of editing? Show before and afters if possible! I will see what I have, too.

 

[kimmar067]

From this:

...to this:

I think the sunset looks more dramatic now.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

It is a work weekend for me so I only have a minute to find a quick example and post.

This is just a small example, but getting rid of the little bit of distraction down to the left that causes the eye to wander down there instead of focusing immediately on the cute dog enhances this photo. Just one small crop.





Let’s see some more of your examples

 

[Pea-n-Me]

One more quickie.

I made some Mexican Street Corn the other night. (And yes, it was really good!)

Just a basic crop to get rid of the annoying drawer handle in the background because I want my viewers to focus just on the corn. This took about ten seconds right on my phone.





I think that Mark had a good point earlier that when you do this, it can change the aspect ratio and such. But if you’re just posting on social media or saving for personal enjoyment, it doesn’t matter much. If you go to print them, that could affect things negatively, and in that case you could always upload the original and crop it on the printing software if need be. I often run into this problem when designing my photo Christmas card, for example. But for the very casual social media poster, that problem is less of an issue.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I'm big on editing. In fact, I often shoot with the expectation of editing rather than trying to "get it right in the camera." To me, a photographer should do both. There are a lot of things that are easier and better to do before and when you take the shot, but there are a lot of things you can do in post-production that can improve your photos. And, as I used to point out to people in the local photography club, all pictures are edited in post-production. The decision is how much control you want of the process and how much you want to leave to the engineers that designed your camera.

I'll try to come back with more examples, but I'll start with my dragonfly picture because it is one of my favorite pictures and because I did a lecture on all the steps I took in editing the picture and why I did them. If there is an interest, I might be able to do that in a thread, posting intermediate forms along the way.

Here is the picture after importing it into Lightroom and scaling it down to post here.

Here is the most common version that I use:

 

[klmall]

I'm big on editing. In fact, I often shoot with the expectation of editing rather than trying to "get it right in the camera." To me, a photographer should do both. There are a lot of things that are easier and better to do before and when you take the shot, but there are a lot of things you can do in post-production that can improve your photos. And, as I used to point out to people in the local photography club, all pictures are edited in post-production. The decision is how much control you want of the process and how much you want to leave to the engineers that designed your camera.

I'll try to come back with more examples, but I'll start with my dragonfly picture because it is one of my favorite pictures and because I did a lecture on all the steps I took in editing the picture and why I did them. If there is an interest, I might be able to do that in a thread, posting intermediate forms along the way.

Here is the picture after importing it into Lightroom and scaling it down to post here.

Here is the most common version that I use:

I'm the same in not trying to capture in the camera because I truly enjoy the editing process (and impatient while the camera is in my hands). Taking a so-so photo and removing the distracting elements, cropping if needed and adjusting brightness and contrast is something that makes me feel I have made the picture mine. And as photo editing technology advances it's fun to go back and tinker with older, less than perfect photos.

 

[klmall]

Just a quick series of editing steps I took recently with a photo from the Wilderness Lodge.

The first is the photo I started with. It's okay but another one of my typical 'old subject in the center' pictures which I am trying to not do as much (but old habits die hard).

In the next I cropped to focus more on the tower and cut off the distracting light pole and water on the left.

Then I tried black and white to pull the color out of the shot and hopefully evoke a mood more suited to the main subject.

I've had better results with black and white in the past but this was a quick tinkering with a photo for fun.