Spring flowers edited
Posted on by Debbie

Experimenting with photo editing for Sunday Stills

Sunday Stills – photo editor

This week’s prompt for Terri’s Sunday Stills Photo Challenge is all about using a Photo Editor.

I am the first to acknowledge that I’m no expert on either photography, or photo editing, but I do know what I like. I sometimes get into trouble (offered as gentle advice) from my sister and her husband for not straightening my horizons and I often commit other photography misdemeanors! As I said I’m no expert 🙂

All I can say is that my photography efforts will always be uniquely my view of life.

I have discovered a few apps to help edit my photos and use them if I feel I need to.  These include but aren’t limited to Lightroom, Over, Pixlr, and Retouch. I also enjoy using Instagram and Canva as well.

I don’t like overly edited photos but having said that I do enjoy experimenting with photos to see just how ‘out there’ I can make them look.  I rarely publish these though!

Here are a few of my recent efforts.  Some of these you may recognise from my post last week with the Texture theme.

Photo Editing

In these examples I have shown the original photo first, followed by the edited version.  Some of the changes I’ve made are very subtle and may not enhance the photo too much at all.  Let me know what you think, I’ll try not to take it too personally 🙂

Unedited fern fronds
Fern fronds
Spring flowers
Spring flowers edited
Baby’s foot
Baby’s foot edited
Starting out
Smoothing out
Getting there
Final

These last photos of me were an interesting experiment, which I did in the name of a blogging challenge – see how committed I am??

I really liked a photo my daughter had taken of me with my new baby granddaughter, but as I am wary of sharing photos of her (out of respect for my daughter and son in law’s views), I edited her out of the photo using the Retouch app which allows me to remove objects from photos. (It did pain me dreadfully to do so).

I then tried to improve my washed out look, smoothing out my face, brightening my skin tone and adding a filter.  I must admit to liking the end result only because it makes me look different to how I see myself. I imagine it’s what happens when people have glamour shots taken or even just professional photo shoots.  My husband’s comment was – ‘you’ve had some work done on your face’.

My attempts at editing here are very rudimentary and totally unprofessional but I admit to having fun experimenting and isn’t that the whole point of it?

In Terri’s post she includes a great quote about leisure activities,  which to her, describes her photography hobby.  I think this can be applied to my attitude towards blogging!

A form of leisure that many people find themselves enjoying is “serious leisure.” This is the systematic pursuit of deep satisfaction through an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity that participants find so substantial and interesting that, in the typical case, they launch themselves on a (non-work) career centered on acquiring and expressing its special skills, knowledge, and experience.

Robert Stebbins, 1992

I have enjoyed sharing some photos and editing processes this week.  I hope you’ve enjoyed it too 🙂

Feel free to leave a comment below. I always love hearing from you!

Deb xx

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31 Replies to “Experimenting with photo editing for Sunday Stills”

  4. Enjoyed seeing your edits. Loved that precious little baby foot! I like to edit images using filters like textures. I have the software on my computer as well as the apps on my phone. Of course now with my new Windows 10 computer, software is referred to as an app.

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  7. Nice editing Deb, never sure how much to mess around with our pics so don’t do much. Not used Lightroom or Retouch but may have to investigate. Are they free apps or do you have to subscribe? Tend to use Picmonkey myself and occasionally Canva.

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    1. No I don’t think so. I used Retouch for fixing some blemishes and for removing my granddaughter, then I used a mix of Pixlr filters and Lightroom. I was just playing around trying to give myself a lift really!! Halfway through my experiment I decided it would work well for Terri’s theme this week and started saving images as I went. Do you think I went too far in the smoothing out and fixing my colour?

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  10. I agree with you completely about over-edited images. Sometimes it’s fun to experiment but you can’t fix a bad photo by amping up the editing. Since I shoot many of my photos in RAW, they really have to be edited to bring them to life… but with a light touch. I think you did a great job with your examples… and if a little editing gives my face an inexpensive lift, I’m all for it 😎.

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  12. I enjoyed reading Robert’s words describing ‘serious leisure’. Thanks for sharing, Deb. I’m new at editing, but I’m the opposite and tend to gravitate towards making a stronger statement with colors and sometimes love extreme exaggeration of effect if its called for to create my vision. It’s great fun. Love the different looks of your portrait. 🙂

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  13. An interesting post Deb. Must admit I’ve only dabbled with editing processes but it’s always fun to play around. (I’m guilty too of those crooked horizons!) I’ll be honest and say I couldn’t see a lot of difference in the fern fronds. I loved the edited version of bub’s foot, the black and white shot looked very natural. As for your photo, wow, you look like model material in the final pic. Gorgeous. Thanks for sharing your fun. xx 🙂

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    1. Thanks Miriam, I had to check the fern frond a few times to make sure I’d actually not posted the same one twice. I think the changes are just very subtle. I was honest about liking the final head shot 🙂 and I appreciate your comments on my being model material – I wish! It was fun to dabble and share my thoughts. Thanks for your valuable feedback, as always it’s most appreciated. xx

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  14. Your changes are appropriate for each photo, Debbie! The baby’s foot looks better in black and white! I love the edits and filters you did for your headshots! I do that too–nothing wrong with blurring a line or two or getting a virtual teeth whitening, LOL! As always, thanks for playing along with SS today!

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    1. My pleasure Terri, it’s always fun to dabble and experiment. I enjoy the opportunity t get involved. I do love the end result of my head shot too – not my usual look at all and I think I was being brave to share the original 🙂

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