When Sally (author of the wildly funny and insightful Unbrave Girl blog) sent me this photo, I was like “What?! I said send me a bad photo!” I think the shot is very compelling to begin with. After comparing the before and after shot above (and also with a fancy slider thing further down), you’ll see that I only did some minor Photoshop editing to try to make this photo really shine.
After much deliberation, here are my thoughts about the original both positive and otherwise.
What I Like
- Dramatic and atmospheric lighting through the trees
- Framing of the gate
- Positioning of the hand-holding couple in the lower left third
- That guys face mask makes me nostalgic for Japan
Improvements
- Dial back the green tone of the photo
- Correct perspective and exactly center the gate in the frame
- Enhance texture of the stone walkway
- Make the hand-holding couple more prominent
The Mark-Up
Photoshop Edits
Before/After
Slide the slider to compare the before/after shots.
[beforeafter]
[/beforeafter]
Sally’s Response
“Wow. I liked my photo a lot to begin with, but I really love the edited version. So… I’m just going to send all my travel photos for you to edit from here on out. Sound good? Yeah, I knew you’d be cool with that.”
Sure Sally, I have a special folder code named “Recycle Bin” for all the free work people send me to do. But really, I’m glad you liked the result.
What do you think? Anything you would’ve changed differently or left the same?
And don’t forget to visit Sally’s blog, Unbrave Girl. She’s a funny lady (in a good way) and I always enjoy reading her posts about life in Asia.
Nice edits. They’re both great, I like the depth of detail in the first, but i also like bringing out the foreground in the second. Great to see the comparison!
What a great concept. I just got a decent camera and I am just nervous to mess stuff up haha. I am off for a one night stay at a hotel on the water in Denmark. If I have anything worth submitting I’ll send it your way. I really want to learn how to enhance my pictures. should I really take pictures of everything in raw format?
Thanks for the comment Nicole. Have a great time in Denmark! Feel free to send me some photos and I’ll make sure to do my worse ^_^
About shooting in RAW, the short answer is yes. It’ll take up hard drive space, but you’ll capture way more information than if you shoot jpgs.
Thanks, dude. I really do love the alterations you made to my photo. I’m thinking I may have to invest in some better photo editing software (since, apparently, you don’t seem to like my suggestion that I send all my photos to you). And I’m glad I could make you feel nostalgic with the face mask guy. Now if only the couple were wearing his and hers matching face masks!
I believe they call that “Pair look” and it was all the rage in Fukuoka last time I was there too.
Glad you like the edits I made. If you do look into getting some software, I highly recommend Photoshop Elements. A lot of bang for the buck.