(Merged post from another blog. Originally posted 6/30/14).
So, one major component of becoming a well established photographer is "defining your style". This is another area of photography that I struggle with. There are MILLIONS of different ways to edit a photo. And I have always found it hard to decide what I like best. You can be colorful and bold, dark and dramatic, light and airy, vintage and matte, etc. etc. And the thing is…I like all of these editing styles! So picking one is hard for me. I feel like one thing I've stayed mostly true to in my editing style, though, is that I don't like applying a lot of post processing "filters". Whenever I apply them I just think it looks too over-processed. However, I like them on other photographers photos. Maybe I'm just not doing it right. But for some reason when I do it to my own photos, it just doesn't seem right to me. I also notice I tend to prefer color photos over black and white. I do love a good B&W, but I'd guess 98% of my photos are in color.
So, lately I've been trying to define my editing style. I've been working extra hard at getting photos perfect straight out of camera (SOOC). I feel like my photos have come a LOOOOONG way and I'm getting really close to having perfect SOOC shots more often than not. Having a perfectly exposed shot SOOC makes editing a thousand times easier (seriously!). Anyway…so I get my pictures as perfectly exposed as possible…do minor tweaks (white balance, exposure if needed, sharpening, etc.) in Adobe Lightroom, then I bring the photo over to Photoshop to "play". Here is where I get caught up. What COULD take me oh…2 minutes to complete an edit, will sometimes take an hour! (I'm not kidding) because I play and play and play with different editing styles.
Take this picture of Brynlee…
This was mainly SOOC. Minor edits done in Lightroom
And here are just some of the various ways I played around with it…
Light and airy
Vintage and matte
Pop of color (slightly)
Slight vintage edit
Standard black and white (a bit brightened up)
All cute, no? My lease favorite is the vintage and matte edit. I don't think I would ever be able to print that and frame it. And my most favorite is the light and airy. This is the editing style I'd say I've been leaning towards lately.
But is it boring? I feel like from a photographers perspective, it's a nice clean edit that showcases the subject and proves the photo was taken by someone who knows what they're doing! :) But, I feel like with the world so used to Instagram filters and easy access to photo editing programs that photography is in this "fad" of very heavily processed images. Does that make sense? I don't say that necessarily in a bad way. I like those photos. I think they have a certain feel to them that a clean edit doesn't always achieve. But I feel like in 5-10-15 years from now we may look back and be like…What the heck were we doing??? And you won't do that as much with a clean edit. Agree? Seems like it's more timeless to do a clean edit…ya know?
Man, this blog has turned into my random photography related ramblings and self-ctiriquing rather than the weekly photo challenge I set it up for. haha. Oh well.
Speaking of self-critiquing. I ADORE this image of Brynlee. I think she just couldn't be cuter. However…it also kinda drives me nuts because I can see that my focus was off a bit. :( It wasn't on her eye, like it should be. Here's a closeup of what I mean…
But…I still love this picture! :)
So, one major component of becoming a well established photographer is "defining your style". This is another area of photography that I struggle with. There are MILLIONS of different ways to edit a photo. And I have always found it hard to decide what I like best. You can be colorful and bold, dark and dramatic, light and airy, vintage and matte, etc. etc. And the thing is…I like all of these editing styles! So picking one is hard for me. I feel like one thing I've stayed mostly true to in my editing style, though, is that I don't like applying a lot of post processing "filters". Whenever I apply them I just think it looks too over-processed. However, I like them on other photographers photos. Maybe I'm just not doing it right. But for some reason when I do it to my own photos, it just doesn't seem right to me. I also notice I tend to prefer color photos over black and white. I do love a good B&W, but I'd guess 98% of my photos are in color.
So, lately I've been trying to define my editing style. I've been working extra hard at getting photos perfect straight out of camera (SOOC). I feel like my photos have come a LOOOOONG way and I'm getting really close to having perfect SOOC shots more often than not. Having a perfectly exposed shot SOOC makes editing a thousand times easier (seriously!). Anyway…so I get my pictures as perfectly exposed as possible…do minor tweaks (white balance, exposure if needed, sharpening, etc.) in Adobe Lightroom, then I bring the photo over to Photoshop to "play". Here is where I get caught up. What COULD take me oh…2 minutes to complete an edit, will sometimes take an hour! (I'm not kidding) because I play and play and play with different editing styles.
Take this picture of Brynlee…
And here are just some of the various ways I played around with it…
All cute, no? My lease favorite is the vintage and matte edit. I don't think I would ever be able to print that and frame it. And my most favorite is the light and airy. This is the editing style I'd say I've been leaning towards lately.
But is it boring? I feel like from a photographers perspective, it's a nice clean edit that showcases the subject and proves the photo was taken by someone who knows what they're doing! :) But, I feel like with the world so used to Instagram filters and easy access to photo editing programs that photography is in this "fad" of very heavily processed images. Does that make sense? I don't say that necessarily in a bad way. I like those photos. I think they have a certain feel to them that a clean edit doesn't always achieve. But I feel like in 5-10-15 years from now we may look back and be like…What the heck were we doing??? And you won't do that as much with a clean edit. Agree? Seems like it's more timeless to do a clean edit…ya know?
Man, this blog has turned into my random photography related ramblings and self-ctiriquing rather than the weekly photo challenge I set it up for. haha. Oh well.
Speaking of self-critiquing. I ADORE this image of Brynlee. I think she just couldn't be cuter. However…it also kinda drives me nuts because I can see that my focus was off a bit. :( It wasn't on her eye, like it should be. Here's a closeup of what I mean…
But…I still love this picture! :)
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