Typical Basic Edits

March 6, 2016 by Debra 2 Comments

Hi, have you ever wondered why the pictures you take are not as vivid or bright as other photographer’s images? Simple basic edits can make a tremendous difference.

Typical Basic Edits

Many people when starting photography get very lost when it comes to editing. When looking at a picture you just took on a nice camera, it’s really easy to look at it and think “wow, that looks great! what is there to fix?” Or maybe “I’ve got a nice camera that I figured out how to use, but I can NOT get my pictures to look like everybody else’s!” Well don’t stress it, because we’ve got some good ways to help you get started with some basic edits.

The 2 main things that photographers look at with each image is the tone and the exposure. Many cameras shoot pictures where the skin tone ends up looking too orange, too red or even too blue. Fixing the image so that the skin tones look natural and like the color of the actual skin can make a dramatic difference. The other major fix is the exposure. Is the picture too light? Is the picture too dark? Even with professional cameras, pictures can come out with the exposure off. The best way to judge if the exposure is correct is to look at the skin again. It’s very important to adjust the image until the exposure is correct. Even if it means making the sky extra bright, it’s more important to have the skin be the correct amount of exposure over everything else in the image.

The two software programs I use to make these basic edits is Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. If you have used other programs to make such adjustments, please share in the comments section below.

For more information about image editing click here.

Best Wishes,

Editing | Photography

July 27, 2015 by Debra

Hi, I just LOVE photography! As previously stated, images here on gmasDiary are not fully edited. They will resemble the middle image above. Levels and color adjustments is just about all that I do to the pictures. The collage illustrates one image at the three editing stages used for my personal and professional pictures. My personal preference is never print the straight out of camera file.

Skin tone straight out of camera is never correct. By adjusting the color and exposure in Adobe Lightroom the image is much more appealing and flattering. The final editing in Photoshop of skin and eye enhancement is especially important for larger sized prints.

From straight out of camera to the final enhancement images takes less than 10 minutes to process. Using the correct camera settings saves tremendous amounts of time in post production of the image. Especially true if there are multiple images to edit!

If you would like information on how I edit my images, please contact me.

Best Wishes,

Creating a Custom Photoshop Brush

January 3, 2014 by Debra

Have you ever wanted to create your own Photoshop brush? I have many shapes that I like, but find it much easier to use the brush tool. I have converted some of my favorite shapes and even designed a few originals of my own. If you use particular word groupings, these can be made into a brush. Do you have a logo? It can be made into a brush. I have put together a tutorial for making these brushes.

Click File – New
Name your brush, set size 3X3 inch @ 150 dpi with a transparent background- Click ok.
Be sure your font/design color is black.
Create a new layer.
Create your design using as many new layers as necessary.
Merge all layers. Do NOT flatten the image!
Choose edit – define brush preset.
Name your new logo/design brush – click ok.
Click on the paintbrush tool on the left of screen.
Look in your brush pallete at the very bottom. You will see your new brush in the last position.
Be sure to save your brush!

Click to download a pdf version of the Photoshop Creating a Brush Tutorial.