Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Photo Editing is Evil

In the sense that it is very, VERY addictive!!!

I did not need one more thing to keep me at this computer for countless hours. I really, really didn't.

But, I think I just found one...

My friend Melissa is an awesome photographer and "photo editor." So, I've been listening to her talk about "Photoshopping" pics and adjusting colors, blah blah blah, for a while now. I've avoided it... I have. For one thing, it sounds time-consuming. For another, I have NO CLUE what she's talking about. None. Zippo. Zilch.

But, last weekend, our Mom's Group had a little playdate at a local park (to celebrate the 70-degree day in JANUARY... ugh, don't even get me started on that!)... and my friend Kelly and I followed each other around the playground with our brand spankin' new cameras and took basically the same pictures of our favorite kids.

When we got home and posted our pics for all to see, I noticed that Kelly's were much more "vibrant" and colorful than mine. And, well, I just can't have that!!!

So, again, she starts talking about adjusting saturation, blah blah blah... it's all Greek to me. Clueless. Me.

Tonight, I very innocently opened a recent photo in my photo editing program... just to see what all the fuss was about. And now, a few hours and several edited photos later, I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to post another picture without "editing" it first.

Darn. Darn. Darn.



See what I mean? My original photos are so drab and lifeless... ick!

So if you don't hear from me for the next year or so... you know what's happened (don't worry, Dad, I promise I'm not moving to Montana anytime soon, lol). I'm sitting at the computer editing each and every one of the 20,000 or so pictures that I've taken of my kids since that fateful night in 2001 when Damon arrived!

The only other alternative, according to Melissa, is to actually learn how to use my camera and adjust its settings to TAKE decent pictures.

I'm doomed.

3 comments:

meliss said...

YAY! I knew I could push you over the edge. Just another thing! :) Those edited pics are wonderful! They weren't bad to begin with, just refined now. So glad you are happy with your editing!

Kelly said...

See the difference that makes. They look great! Until I learn to use my camera correctly I'm stuck with PS'ing every single picture I take because they really suck otherwise. I have so much to learn especially with lighting. That will be my New Years Resolution is to figure out how the heck to take pictures that I don't have to lighten the shadows on. Yeah umm if I figure anything out I'll let ya know because it might take a while.

Anonymous said...

Can you edit about 20 pounds (...alright, 30...there I said it) off of me?