A Different View

Sunday, January 16, 2011 · Posted in

I have been working really hard at learning how to use various photo editing software programs.  I have an ancient version of Photoshop already and  I have downloaded a 30 day trial of Lightroom 3 and I have also been using Picnik.  Picnik is by far the easiest out there but I find it best for adding effects and not real editing.  Lightroom is definitely easier to use than Photoshop but so far I have not been able to add much for special effects I have mostly been using it to clean up photos.  I thought I would show below some of the edited photos and explain how I got these effects and what program I used to create them.




For both of these pictures I used Lightroom.  These photos were taken from a moving vehicle so I didn't have much time to adjust the camera so the original photos are too far away and somewhat over exposed.  In Lightroom I cropped the photos and lowered the tone curve slightly to lessen some of the over exposure.  Then I added a slight vignette to both photos.



I just love this cute little guy, I used to drive by him everyday on the way to and from work and one day stopped to snap his picture.  I didn't do much to this photo I simply used Auto Tone in Lightroom to deepen the color and again added a slight vignette.  I find I add a vignette to most of my photos as I seem to prefer a slightly darkened edge.  



I think I actually like the original photo better than the edited one because the bird stands out more, but it still gives you an idea of what you can do, again with this one I simply used Auto Tone in Lightroom and then added a slight white vignette to the photo.



Again I am not sure if I like the edited photo better.  This is the Golden Gate Bridge encased in fog.   I used Picnik's Cross Process effect to add the color then moved it over to Lightroom to add vignette.



This is Alcatraz Island.  I find the original photo of this one a little boring, in Photoshop I used the fresco filter to add the effect and then lowered the opacity to about 60%.  I think it makes the photo look a little more creepy and interesting.

I am certainly no expert, there may be simpler or better ways to edit photos, this is simply a sampling of effects that I have learned in the last couple weeks.  

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