WW: Editing & Etiquette

As per usual, my Wordless Wednesday is quite wordful!I wanted to take this midweek opportunity to take you through some photo editing steps!

If you prefer the cute baby portion of my blog check out this post or this one or for some thoughts on motherhood see this one! =)

Now, if you are still here and if you've been around these parts before you probably know a couple of months ago I jumped in as the co-host of the Edit Me Challenge. If this is your first time hearing of such...you MUST check it out! This week we have the original photo below and this is your opportunity to get a head start as it doesn't officially go up until tomorrow!

Our guest judge this week is a dedicated Edit Me participant, Kaylene Maalste from L'INSTANT. This is the SOOC photo she has provided for us:

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD LARGE SIZE PHOTO

While I'm not eligible to win because I am a host of the challenge, I wanted to take you through some steps and maybe inspire some creative editing! I won't claim to be the best, so take what I have and make it your own showing us your unique style! Hint: I think our judge this week is really into photography as art!

I also want to point out that since this challenge is open to everyone regardless of what software you use, I am once again using PicMonkey.com for all of my editing today. For now, it's totally free and they seem to add a new feature every week! So no excuses! If you do use some fancy software like Lightroom, CS(whatever) or Elements the basic principles I've used here can be converted to your software.

The following edit is a basic clean edit to get us started. Here's what I did:

1. Lowered the Brightness (you wouldn't think so by comparing the two photos, but I wanted to remove a little haze from the original)
2. Increased the Highlights to bring back some light
3. Added an unsharp mask (just slightly sharping the photo - if this were my final edit I would have sharpened it more)
4. Cropped (I wanted to get rid of some of that dark shadow in the bottom left corner)
5. Straightened by click on the Rotation tab

Keeping my Clean edit, I decided to get a little creative using some of PicMonkey's effects. If you are using another software you might want to look for free Presets (Lightroom & Elements) or Actions (Photoshop).
Here's what I added:

1. Cross Processing set to Red and faded 60%
2. Tranquil faded 45%
3. Using the Burn Effect I used the brush around the edges just slightly

This one I really like. It suits my style with the soft cool blues and greens and brings out the rust in on the old wheel. 

Now, let's take it one more step! Keeping the current edit here's what I added for the next edit:

1. Cropped again just really to get a different look. This is what makes photography so interesting. Each photographer sees a different perspective. Also, when you are in post processing you may see something you didn't through the lens. So, with this edit I'm altering the viewer's perspective as well!
2. Okay, this is specific to PicMonkey and kind of an odd decision, but I wanted a combined effect with a brush tool (in Lightroom I often use the Brush tool with a preset from MCP Actions called Depth and Drama or I adjust by hand - Increased Contrast, Clarity, Sharpness, and Lowered Exposure or you could use a burn tool and sharpen tool in CS5). In Pic Monkey - I chose the Mascara tool at 50% =). I brushed over the trees and shadows in the background giving them a little more depth.
3. Added a Papyrus Texture and faded it 70%
4. Added a Smudge Texture and faded it 70%

And for the last little bit of creative editing. I though a black and white was in order. For a great black and white photo you really need depth, contrast and good use of shadows. So SOOC this photo is great, but a little flat for a black and white conversion. So, here's what I did using the original photo:

1. Decreased Brightness
2. Increased Highlights 
3. Increased Contrast
4. Increased Shadows (slightly)
5. Cropped it very similar to the clean edit above and straightened
6. Applied Unsharp Mask
7. Used the Burn Tool to highlight the shadows and give it a little more depth.
8. Sharpened and Clarifies again
9. Cloned out the branch at the top right

I'm really happy with each of these edits that are unique and special in their own way! I think the B&W is my favorite! What do you guys think?

Watermarking Etiquette

Something I didn't mention in my steps that I did in each photo is the Watermark "edited by Behind the Camera and Dreaming". There are several reasons to include or not to include it, but recently with the onslaught of Pinterest, it is almost necessary IF you want credit for the work you’ve done or images you’ve created. The only photos that I don’t watermark these days are iPhone photos because well who has the time. Now, for Edit Me purposes, we have to take a different approach. If the photographer does not watermark their photo – they are not requiring you to watermark it (never remove a photographer's watermark). However, if you want to put your watermark on the photo it really does need to be clear that you did not take the original photo.

I’ve accomplished this by giving photographer credit to the original photo (for Edit Me – this is always nice to have with a link to their blog, etc.) and added “edited by” to my watermark. So, if this photo were to wind up on another website – hopefully with my permission – it can be traced back to my blog for editing information and in turn be directed to the original photographer.Just to be clear – a watermark is not required, but if you use one use it responsibly!

I hope you guys enjoyed and found this little tutorial helpful and inspiring! Now, get over to the Edit Me Challenge and show us your creativity!

XOXO