Why edit?

I used to be a "straight out of camera (sooc)" purist. I love taking a good picture with the camera, not editing a mediocre picture into a good picture. But I've learned that I was a little elitist in thinking that way, and that there really are very few pictures out there that don't benefit from a little bit of editing. Editing also allows you to turn lemons into lemonade in cases when you HAVE to capture a shot right then and there, even if conditions are not ideal.

I went to pick up my daughter from her friend's house last weekend. Two weeks ago, I had done the same thing, and lamented not having my camera with me to take pictures of these amazing old oak trees that I drive by on my journey there and back. The sunset that night was gorgeous, and I watched it, only able to record it in my mind. So this time, I had my camera with me, and we were driving home at the perfect time for sunset...but the sunset did not cooperate. It was a very lackluster sky, and the cloud cover meant it got too dim too quickly for any good shots...so I'm going to use them for a short editing demo (but please don't think I'm implying these are good at all-they just have redeeming value in being a good object lesson ;-).

So here are several pictures I took that night, all of the same tree, and all within a few moments of each other. The only difference is the slight change in where I took the picture as I walked along and the orientation of the camera vertical or horizontal. The other changes are all in the editing...
The top picture is straight out of camera-not one pixel changed.






One of these days, I'll have GOOD pictures to show you from these pastures with their grand old oaks!

Playing around

The original photo...a girl from church who was totally engrossed with her kitty, much to her mother's (the children's worship leader) chagrin. I'm a firm believer in taking a good photo from the get-go and not relying on editing to "fix" things. But sometimes circumstances are beyond your control-like the kids in the background.

In this one, I cropped the picture a bit and used the "clone" brush to make the two kids in the background "disappear".

Here I put a faint "frame" around her to draw attention to her face...but I can't figure out how to adjust the size of the frame, so it is actually a little tighter around her face than I wanted.

And here I changed the color to Sepia and added an old fashioned picture border.

I did all this because it is a good way for me to practice, and I always tell people that I can change things about the picture, but I'm not sure that they understand the scope of things that can be done. This just scratches the surface!