I’m bad at editing photos

One thing I’m really bad at, is editing photos. With this, I mean that I don’t really edit my photos. Sure, I make minor changes to exposure, contrast, colour temperature, etc., but I very, very rarely try any substantial edit. But when I see other photographers work I realise that I should become braver, learn to imagine how I want the picture to look like and figure out how to do the actual edit.

And don’t get me started on tools like Photoshop, I have no idea how to use these programs. What is most irritating is that I can’t figure out why I haven’t bothered to learn how to use them.

So, here are a few quick edits I tried today … trying to relax after work. Note, they are not intended to be examples of good edits, instead I consider them as rough sketches for things that I should become better at. They are also a bit overdone, ideally you shouldn’t suspect that a photo have been edited … unless, of course, the photo should look overdone like the first photo below.

I took this photo in Stockholm a couple of years ago. I wanted to get a “spooky” feeling and decided to try out some Lightroom Presets. In other words, I didn’t actually do any editing, I just clicked around until I found something that looked like I wanted.

The next photo was taken a few weeks ago. The original is a bit flat, dull and cold, so I tried to enhance the colours to get a bit more depth. I also wanted to make the sky warmer and enhanced the colours in the clouds.

Here I tried to enhance the yellow, orange and brown. The idea was once again to get a warmer, more autumn like, feeling.

Another autumn photo, it looks like I’m only taking photos in the autumn, and once again I’ve tried to get a warm feeling. I changed to color temperature to get the feeling of sun rise … in reality the photo was taken in the middle of the day.

It’s fun to see how different edits change the photo, but I find it difficult to go from what I see in my head to something I can see with my eyes. I don’t understand what kind of adjustments I should make … but I suppose it’s a matter of getting more practice.

2021-10-20 photography imagination editing post processing Reply by email

Halfway there

In July I started a “One photo per day” project to see if I could beat my previous record of about 150 days. The goal is 200 days and I’m happy to say that I’ve now halfway there. Today I uploaded nr 100, and to celebrate I moved the whole thing to an album on my photo site (for some strange reason it’s easier to manage photos on a photo site compared to regular blog site … who could have guessed).

2021-10-08 photography project Reply by email

Black and white day

For some reason I need to post a black & white photo today. Here is one from a few years ago, taken in Sveaborg/Soumenlinna.

2021-09-23 helsingfors helsinki soumenlinna sveaborg Reply by email

Friday Photowalk

I try to take a daily walk (or two) and while walking I usually listen to podcasts or audiobooks. One of my favorite podcasts is The Daily Photography Podcast - I highly recommend it if you’re into photography - and every friday there is the “Friday Photowalk” episode where Neale James do a photowalk while reading/answering listeners emails.

I have of course heard about photowalks before but I have never attended one - living where I live partly explains it - but I thought a single person photowalk would work. So I decided to try it this morning while actually listening to todays episode. So here are some photos from today:

The sun hadn’t quite risen yet, 4 minutes to sunrise