Photo Editing!

Okay, so Shutter Sisters has called for posts on post processing before and afters. I'm sad to say, you won't find anything special here. Not because I don't LOVE the effects of post processing, but because any attempt I make bogs me down so much, it's rarely worth it. Normally I just crop and add some contrast in iPhoto. I only really get in there and process the photo if there was something wrong with it and I'm trying to save it.

Case #1 Bella in the shadow, without even catchlights in her eyes to redeem the shot.
Adjusted in iPhoto:



Original:



Case #2: silouhettes
Adjusted in iPhoto:


Orignial:


Once you read my post processing process, you'll understand that it's not that I'm a SOOC elitist, but I have an old(er), very full, very confused computer. If you follow me on flickr, you'll notice that I have to dump my photos all at once and that I haven't had any lately. That's because I can't have a browser and iPhoto open at the same time. Actually, the reason this post is so late in coming was that I ignored the warning signs WAAAY too long and my iPhoto finally gave up the ghost and crashed. I backed up all my photos and yesterday I deleted (!!) every photo off my harddrive and drag-and-dropped the photos one by one back into iPhoto. It took the whoooole (beautiful, sunny, glorious) day, but now I have my access to my photos starting in 2009 and the rest are safely packed away.

Anyhow, so apart from adjusting the color levels or contrast in iPhoto, if I want to really play with a shot, this is how it goes: Open photo. Email photo to self. Open photo on Dave's pc. Import and open in Photoshop Elements 3. Play with photo, save, email to self. Open photo on my mac, import to iPhoto. A bit round about, and add 15 minutes every time my computer needs to switch from mail to iPhoto. So, anyhow, rarely done, but some day I know I'll enjoy tweaking little photos here and there.

For now instead of insisting that I set aside 15 minutes a day to learn how to process photos, I have made it my goal to make my SOOC shots as good as possible. That's not such a bad goal, right?