Things I've Learned

Learning new things is fun. And yes, I am aware that admitting that might qualify me for the nerd-of-the-year award.

I feel like the last month has taught me SO MUCH. Just so I don't forget, I'm sharing it here.

1. Picnik is good. Lightroom is better. I downloaded my free trial of Photoshop Lightroom to help me edit the pictures of the wedding, and fell completely in love. So. much. more. control. And I think the pictures come out looking much more true-to-life. Having a basic knowledge of Photoshop helped me learn it pretty quickly and I really fell in love the day I found all of the presets! Oh funness. Lesson learned: you get more if you pay for it, and sometimes the cost is worth it.

2. Flash is not the new F-word. It's not even a bad word. Remember when I went to the Flashbus tour and I wasn't really sure how I would ever use what they taught me because I'm a natural light photographer? I've been eating those words ever since. I still love me some Mr. Golden Sun, but flash is my new best friend when Mr. Sun has to fulfill his other duties. And, I'm so, so glad I splurged and got the SB-900, because it was worth every penny. Even when there is some natural light in my house, the flash adds enough extra light so that I don't have to slow down my shutter speed and my pictures stay nice and sharp. Also, it doesn't look harsh or fake like I expected it to; instead, I'm using the light sculpting techniques I learned from Flashbus to improve my pictures. It's not for every situation, but for the ones I need it for, I am so grateful to have it and know how to use it. Lesson learned: make friends with the things you think are your enemies. Don't judge it till you try it.

Here's a picture taken with natural light and flash:

Of course it's of Aslan. What were you expecting? (Side note: we call this his suitcase mode because it looks like you could just attach a handle to him and pick him up and he's all compact and ready to roll.)

3. Keep your shutter speed above 1/125 (if lighting is low, you are hand-holding, and your flash is attached to your camera). Having a speedlight on camera increases the weight, which in turn increases camera shake and makes pictures blurry. Anything below 1/125 is not fast enough to overcome the shake of your camera in a low-light situation if you're not going to be able to increase the light. I made this mistake at the wedding I shot in April, and all of the portraits I took below this shutter speed came out way too soft. Lesson learned: Pay closer attention to shutter speed.

4. Backlighting is awesome. See below.

5. Creative blocks happen. And then you move on. And it's better than it was before you hit the slump. Acknowledging it helps and embracing it may allow you to rest or propel you into finding new things to try. Follow your intuition, it will lead you in the right direction. Lesson learned: get up and do something and I promise you will feel better and you might even find something that inspires you.

I'm pretty sure that I learned more than this, but I think for now that's enough. And because there's one picture of Aslan in this post already, here's another. He's living up to his name (which, in case you forgot, is Turkish for lion):

Picnik

What I've noticed about the photographers who inspire me is how natural their pictures look. Not just natural in that they look unposed, but natural in lighting and color, too. They use post-processing (mostly with photoshop) to enhance this attribute of their photos, rather than detract from it.

I would LOVE to be able to get Photoshop but can't really do that until I have a computer to run it on. My poor little sweet old laptop would just not be able to handle it. At six years old (which is like, what, 120 in computer years?), it's trucking slowly along, but not able to run much more than an internet browser and maybe a word processor...and definitely not both at the same time.

So what's a wannabe photographer to do? I decided to go on a Picnik. (You don't have to laugh at that one; I know, it was lame.) It's not a perfect solution, but for a free photo editor, it can actually do a lot.

At this point in my photography, the main issues I struggle with are correcting white balance and color. I've gotten much better at properly exposing my photos, composing the picture, and utilizing depth of field to put the focus on my subject. So aside from white balance (which I am seriously working on), in general, my pictures are what I want them to look like straight out of camera (SOOC). Which is exactly what I want to be able to do - typically, post-processing does not make a bad composition or poorly lit subject look better.

Basically, all I do in post-processing is color correct, add a little contrast, check shadows and highlights against my histogram, and then use a few Picnik effects to get the colors in the image exactly how I want them, which is usually as natural as possible. Sometimes I go for a more vibrant or desaturated color, depending on how I want the picture to feel.

Let's take this one for example. Of course, it's of Aslan. The white balance is super bad - waaayyy too blue - because I forgot to change the setting in my camera from fluorescent to daylight (oops).

The picture wasn't all bad. I mean, I liked the way he was looking at the camera - he looks self-assured, half bored and amused at the same time, which is how he normally looks at me when I'm acting ridiculous and taking too many pictures of him. And it was really cold that day, so I was wishing I could be just like him, all curled up next to the warm pillows on the sofa. I've heard that sometimes the blue look can make a photo feel cold, but this blue wasn't exactly what I was going for.

After adjusting the color temperature in Picnik with the neutral picker, things were looking much better. I then added a little bit of local contrast in the exposure adjustments, and used the retro and cross-processing effects to further modify the colors. The retro effect added some warmth to the whites and the cross-processing effect brightened up the blues in the pillows and the shadows. I never use the full effect on a photo - it looks way too fake - so I adjust the strength of the effect by nudging the fade sliders to somewhere between 75-90% where it looks right.

In hindsight, this particular picture is not a perfect representation of the style of photography I want; the finished product looks like it has been post-processed, not natural. I do like that it still has a cold feeling from the cross-processing effect, but it doesn't have a pure white, and the perfectionist in me is slightly bothered by that. However, it illustrates my point that Picnik can be a useful editor when Photoshop isn't available.

For photographers looking to improve the finished photo with post-processing, don't be afraid to play around with Picnik, Photoshop, or any other application you want to use. Try all of the effects to see what they do. Decide what you want the picture to feel like when it's done. Move the sliders. There's always the undo button.

P.S. I am not affiliated in any way with Picnik or Photoshop and have not been paid anything from either of them for this post. They are simply my choices of photo editors and since I'm not famous yet, I doubt anyone is taking my advice anyway :o).