Amateurish…at Best

So, I’m slowly, slowly learning about this photography thing.  It’s complicated.  It’s tough.  It’s mind-boggling.

I’ve always been that person who just set the point-and-click on “auto” and snapped, snapped, snapped away.  I have always been concerned with composition and “organization” in the photos (I started out in college with an art history minor—that went by the wayside when I realized that I would actually have to take an art class that involved me making the stuff instead of just appreciating it), but I’ve never worried much about exposure, shutter speed, tones and midtones, contrast ratios, curves, and the like.  Those are in a different realm for me.

Then, I got my Nikon D5000.  Um, can I really call it mine though if it was actually—technically—a Father’s Day present for Jack?  I think so.  I don’t think he’d mind.  (Let’s just not ask him, K?  K.)  I talk about the Nikon D5000 here and here and here.  I talk about it a lot.

And, THEN, I started playing with Photoshop.

Yes, it’s an outdated version, yes, it takes forever to load on our computer, but it’s Photoshop, nonetheless, and it’s a miracle worker.  I used to work with a super-duper old version way back in my early teaching career, but that was mostly just for cropping photos for yearbook design.  (Yes, I was a high school yearbook adviser.  Please don’t think less of me.  If nothing else, it turned me into a font-hound and taught me the relative usefulness of the “pica” measurement.)

Before Photoshop, I never understood what people meant when they talked about “post-production” techniques, but now I understand.  You not only have to worry about how you take the photo in the first place, but you also have to worry about how it’s processed afterward.  Some photos are great straight out of the camera; others, well, others need a little lovin’, a little caressin’, a little re-touchin’.  And I’m not talking  about taking away a pimple here or fixing some red-eye issues over there; I’m talking about playing with the lighting and the colors, the cropping and all those fabulous little tools that can turn a boring photo into something nostalgic, something fresh and colorful, something vintage, something neon and futuristic, something soft and seventies.

One of my friends posted on her Facebook page the other day that her iPhone is her new love, her new boyfriend.

Internet audience, I’m having an affair with Photoshop.  And it’s likely to last a long time.  And it’s likely to get in the way of my other interests for a while.  Yes, I will feed my children, clothe them, play with them and read to them on occasion, and, yes, I will do the 14-loads-on-average-per-week of laundry and fold them and put them away (eventually), and, no, I will not allow my bathroom sinks to collect so much grime and toothpaste and hair that they cease to drain and Jack has to get the dreaded “snake” out and plunge those sucker s clean, but I will be spending some quality time with just me and Photoshop, all cuddled up together in the privacy of my office/playroom/den/craft room/family room/walk-through room/cat lounge/library.  Yeah, not much privacy there.  Photoshop and I gotta get us a new place.

Now, ironically, after all this talk about the D5000, Jack and I took some really great shots at the park yesterday with our lowly little Nikon Coolpix S560.  (I’ve talked about it, albeit briefly, here.)  There were lots of shots of empty sky and heads chopped off and so forth, but there were some great pictures of the girls and one fantastic one of Evie and me.

Isn’t this a dreamy picture.  This is straight out of the camera, or, as Pioneer Woman over at her website likes to call it:  SOOC.  (Well, it’s had a little nip and tuck in terms of cropping for the sake of composition, but nothing else has been touched—as of yet.)  A little bit too “cool,” a little bit too drab, but a great shot in terms of subject matter.

The next version adds a touch of warmth and some messing with the curves to achieve a slightly lighter look.  For this, I used the “warmer” Pioneer Woman Action that you can get here, and I also used the Dooce effect that she describes at her website here but that I downloaded from ABDPBT here.  (Love that Dooce!  Do you Dooce?)  What are Photoshop Actions? you might ask.  They are recordings of various editing steps you might take while touching up a photo.  They literally record all the functions you desire to achieve a certain look.  There are lots of good free ones out there (like the ones I’ve used), but you can also purchase some higher-end actions by just searching around.

Here’s the Pioneer Woman’s “fresh and colorful” action.  Not quite there yet, but the colors are nice.  The faces and skin are too washed-out though.

How about some vintage effects?  This one is called “Heartland,” and it would be really great for some shots of me rustling up my cattle or Sadie or Abbie eating their fishy crackers around the campfire, but it just doesn’t work for this lovely mother-and-daughter shot.

Here is the shot with a little warmth added, a little highlighting in the curves, but then I used the “Seventies” action.  Groovy and reminds me of all those photos my dad took of me and my brother, Cooter, back when we were growing up in the 1970’s.  It just needs a big crease in the upper corner, some scratches right on top of the best features of the photo—the faces—and some coffee stains all across my arm at the top.  Oh, and a few pinholes where someone has stuck the photo to a bulletin board would be quite nostalgic as well.

I like this next one.  Its action is called “Colorized,” but I’ve again added some warmth and also played with the hue and saturation to get it to spark up a bit.  It’s meant to look like an old black and white photo that has been touched up with a little color, à la Wizard of Oz style.

I think that ultimately, though, I like simplicity for simply lovely photos like this one.  Simplicity doesn’t necessarily mean a simple process, just a simple outcome.  I ended up using a little Dooce effect, some Pioneer Woman warmth, a little sharpness, and then I did my own adjustments of the curves and the hue and saturation.  Oh, and a little touch-up for Mom’s freckles and other unmentionable spots that three pregnancies have so kindly left me.

So, what I’m ultimately left with is just me and my baby.  Adorable, isn’t she?  Simply adorable.

Move over, Photoshop.  I think I’m in love.

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