Photo Maintenance

I want to go back to talking about photo editing for a moment.  Specifically, I want to go over simple, "maintenance" editing.  In other words, the bare minimum amount of editing that you can do to improve the appearance of your photos.  This goal with this kind of editing is to keep the photo looking natural (like it wasn't edited) by messing around with simpler effects like contrast, brightness, sharpness, shadows, saturation, etc.  The easiest way to do this is "Auto-Fix", which is an option on Photoshop, iPhoto, Picnik, and most other editing programs.

The reason I want to discuss "maintenance" editing is because small changes can make a big difference.  You may think a photo is great, but when you start tweaking the contrast or colors, you discover that you can make it even better.  Here are a couple examples of the difference some slight editing can make.  The first picture is the unedited version of a photo I took out of my summer dorm room window.  It's a cool photo, but I was forced to take it through the window, which blurred it slightly.  Also, some of the colors are a bit dull.

The picture isn't bad, but it could be better. Now, here is the edited version.  There was no Picnik editing involved with this one.  I just used the basic editing settings on iPhoto.

As you can see, there isn't a huge difference, but the picture is clearer and the colors have a little more pop.  I think it went from an interesting photo to something that stands out a little more now that the sky, rain, and clouds have more color.

Here is one more example.  This was another photo taken through a window.  It was an amazing sunset after a thunderstorm, and I had to capture it.  However, because I was forced to take it through a window pane and because I was using my older camera, the colors didn't translate as well as they could have.

A couple minutes and some editing later, I think the finished product has a lot more impact than the original.

So, as you can see, a little editing can go a long way.  I recommend taking some time to play with the basic editing tools on Picnik or whatever photo editing program you have on your computer.  I promise it will come in handy in the future.