Even with the cameras listed on my bio and a previous blog post in regards to camera and editing, I still often get asked what camera I use and how I edit my photos. Each time I answer and I now want to share a bit more on editing since it has changed a bit since my last post.
With art or anything that requires creativity, whether it’s subtle or drastic, our style and tools will forever be changing. Without change, without challenges, we will not be stretched, we will not grow as an artist, creator, or crafter. Without challenging our inner fears, doubts, discomfort, and/or insecurities, we will not grow as a person either. To grow in anything, we need to get out of our comfort zone.
While we want to see consistency in others and ourselves, change needs to happen on a regular basis.
At the beginning of my Instagram journey, I focused on taking photos with my phone. An iPhone 5s that I later, June/July-ish of 2016, upgraded to a 6s. It was simple, small, a camera that I will always have on hand, I can edit the images easily and on the go, obscure, and all I had to focus on was the act of taking photos.
For mobile editing, I tried Snapseed + VSCO, Lightroom + VSCO, just VSCO, just Lightroom and aColorStory. At the end, maybe because of my Photoshop/Lightroom background, I mostly used Lightroom with the occasional aColorStory/VSCO.
NOTE: If you’re just finding my blog, you can check out my mobile Lightroom tutorial. It’s more less the mobile editing method I used from spring 2016 to 2017.
Since our Poland trip, I have been using Nic, my dSLR, more often. It’s an old Nikon D300, which I would love to upgrade, but for now, it’ll do. At this moment I have no idea what I want just yet. Another dSLR or one of those mirrorless cameras with interchangeable lenses.
Nic has been wandering around more because of the sun. I can’t take good sunny photos with the iPhone. If you can, well done you!! Me, I am just a bit challenged in this department. So I take Nic. It wasn’t comfortable at first, I was always a cloudy, shady, golden hours, kind of photographer. But, the more I clicked, the more comfortable I felt. We’re not besties but I can now call shadows and bright sun good friends.
Isn’t it interesting how our brain operates? It’s just like working out. The first time you do it, it’s not fun, awkward, and the next day, sooooo painful! This though was one of the most powerful things that I learned about learning and changing. It’s uncomfortable at first but if you keep doing it, keep fighting your inner demons and stay positive, it’ll happen. Practice makes perfect; Fake it until you make it!
Nic brought change. It took some trial and error. But after a few weeks, or months, I am settling into a different editing style. Still full of colours but with more of an airy summer feel.
In this video, more of a show-and-tell than proper tutorial, I will show you more less how I edit in Lightroom. When I use my dSLR, I shoot in manual and RAW (instead of jpeg) mode. RAW images are unprocessed and uncompressed images. Comparing RAW and jpeg to Barbie is like RAW = bare Barbie and jpeg = all dressed up Barbie. When bare, we get to freely pick and choose the clothing, makeup, and hair. When dressed up, you can change clothes, do some hair but not the makeup. RAW photos will look dull out of the camera but give one more choices when manipulating in Lightroom. A jpeg is compressed and processed and can be limited in terms of editing once out of the camera.
Out of habit, I try to get the lighting and colour balance in camera. In general, I don’t change the exposure or white balance (WB) in Lightroom drastically. Exposure and WB to me is like salt and pepper. Add/adjust as needed and do as you see fitting here for your image. If you are new to photography and your white balance is off or your images are too under/over exposed, you may need to mess with this a bit more. For my WB, I like to be as naturally white as possible. For exposure, I do shoot slightly overexposed. I don’t use a light meter. I just use the EV in my camera.
I still have a lot of playing to do since I just got my photography mojo back recently. But, this is a start and hopefully I can share more detailed tips and tricks on photography and editing in the future.
I hope you enjoy this video! There may be pauses here and there or my voice going in and out. I may just be rusty at creating video tutorials or I am just getting old. I may need to start writing a script first before recording if this continues on. To be fair though, I just winged this one. It took two goes. Two because I forgot to plug my microphone in the first time around ??
I love sharing my process and the interesting thing about photography is that even if you do exactly what I do on your photo, your photo may not come out with that same feel/look. Don’t be frustrated if this is the case! Just keep improving your photography skills (it’s still important to get the best image on camera than to edit the heck out of it later) and learn from as many people out there (YouTube has so many video tuts) and see which suits your style best.
I found that while I love all sorts of edits and admire so many people (Lucy Laucht, Dan Tom, Annie Tarasova, and Tiffany being my current favourites) with summer in full swing, airy, bright, colourful and light is what suits me. The end results of my summery edits filled my heart with joy. When I hit more clouds, my mood will change and I’d most likely add more shadows and blacks and less vibrant to my images. Maybe I may try and look a bit more like Annie/Lucy. Or go completely different. I love to be inspired but I have learned to listen to my heart too.
PS: After I finished the video, decided the lavender could be a bit more purple and I pushed the purple a bit more. I think it looks better. What do you think?
Have a great one!
What a brilliant way to share your talent Savitri – boy do I have some learning to do! Really loved watching your videos, you did such a terrific job, crystal clear. Isn’t technology just incredible…
Just saw this! I am horrible at this blogging stuff!! Thank you lovely! I’d love to have more time to create more tuts.