And as if by magic, we're back into a Monday already and the countdown for the weekend can start back up again.
First and foremost, as you probably know if you follow the Blog, my Facebook and Instagram accounts, there is currently a very fun Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt taking place and in full swing - actually, we're now half way through it - woohoo!
So let me share our latest Photo Grid - due to holidays and other commitments (summer has really not been very helpful with motivating me to stay indoors and stare at the computer), it hasn't been a weekly feature, but I think this has only made each one we've had so far more saturated with the fun entries!
How brilliant, right?
And there's still time to join in the fun with 7 weeks to go till we wrap up the 'Hunt' for summer and finalise our results. You can join the Facebook group here!
Continuing with the Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt, I have decided to briefly talk about quick editing for the Monday Motivator feature.
You may have noticed that my ‘vision’ is usually fairly natural and true to life, my editing is by no means extensive, but the longer I’ve reviewed my own work with a critical eye, the more little bits and bobs I notice (and NEED TO fix before releasing the creations into the big bad world!). It may be a crop that needs doing or horizon to straighten – maybe a shadow lifted or highlight lowered. My adjustments are usually fairly low-key and aimed to only enhance the image as it was, as opposed to creating something completely new.
For personal and professional work, taken with my SLR I use mainly Lightroom and a tiny bit of Photoshop if I absolutely must.
For purely personal, casual (Instagram) use and when taken with my little camera or iPhone, I might not apply any edits at all or use Snapseed.
I think I’ve briefly touched on this editing app in one of my posts from the Learning Week, but it really is an amazing tool – it’s pretty powerful for being ‘just an app’ and accessible on the go, gives you a lot of control of the edits applied to your images, but also has some handy automated features too. It's free, which is a bonus too - you can at least try it out and see if it works - pain/charge-free!
I recently posted an image on my Instagram in its three reincarnations: SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera), then edited by Snapseed that same evening for a quick upload to Instagram and the final version, edited in Lightroom.
Granted, I did not spend much time editing it with Snapseed, the result it gave me was very close to what I had in mind and what I eventually finalised in Lightroom and Photoshop.
I have also recently spoken to a great photographer mama, whose laptop is currently off sick, so she transfers her images directly to her phone from the camera and edits in Snapseed – her work is fantastic and a great testament to the power of this tool.
So I thoroughly recommend Snapseed if you aren’t quite ready to commit to Lightroom (money and time-wise), but want to give your images a bit more oomph.
The next thing I wanted to speak about with regards to editing is Presets in Lightroom.
For those of you using Lightroom – this is like ‘filters’ on Instagram and the idea is that once you download and add to your Lightroom catalogue, a click of a button will apply this ‘filter’ to your image, giving you a very speedy edit - in theory!
I don’t use presets myself (not any purchased ones anyways, I find it best to make up my own ‘filters’ and apply them to each session I do, making minor adjustments to every photo thereafter – it’s definitely a more laborious process, but I feel most confident and comfortable doing it this way), even though I’ve spent way too much money on buying them before I really knew how they worked and what they could do for me.
However, if they are something you find works for you, they are brilliant and worth the investment.
My word of advice here is you get what you pay for – when I first discovered the world of Presets, a very attractive-looking ad popped up on Facebook, offering me millions of presets for £10 (reduced from £300+, naturally). They looked brilliant and I thought that at £10 you just couldn’t go wrong.
Waste of £10, I tell ya, I wish I hadn’t bothered and had two Starbucks instead.
The best in my opinion are Mastin and Greater than Gatsby (Mastin turn your digital photos into film-looking images and GtG apply more creative edits – to me, they require a bit more ‘commitment’ and aren’t the most natural look). Both aren’t cheap, but if you find presets a tool for you, they are very worth the investment!
Here are a few examples of Before/After of images SOOC and with one-click edit using the presets (mix of beArt and GtG). Click right on each set below to see the 'After' image.
So if you fancy checking out what this is I am talking about, why not start with some of the best freebies I’ve found:
You’ll likely find that among a number of options in each set, there are only a couple that really look great on your photos and even then, they might need tweaks. It’s not the worst way to learn about editing too though, as you can play with the sliders and controls and see what effects this gives you – leading you to developing your own style (and maybe even your own set of presets!).
Please share your preferred workflow or are you a purist at heart - do you find that editing images is cheating and you should be getting them 'right' in-camera (I believe you absolutely should, by the way, but sometimes (usually!) there are just the smallest tweaks to be made and, if the tools are there to use, why not!)?
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Scavenger Hunt 2018 | Photography Scavenger Hunt | Adobe | Lightroom | Editing | Presets | Snapseed | Monday Motivator | Before and After