Week 1 Tutorial: General Post Processing Hello everyone! How are you enjoying the We Are Storytellers Event so far? There are so many more exciting things coming your way. Today we will share with you some post processing tips for photos. Straight out of the camera photos are okay in most instances, but there are times when you can help tell a story by changing the mood of a photo during post processing. There are several ways of achieving this in photo editing software. Color is one of the most common ways to change the mood or set the tone of a photo. This is easily achieved by applying different color filters in photo editing software. Let's take a moment to look at how color impacts the mood of a photo. Blue creates a sad or lonely mood. Think about a rainy day, winter weather, or someone that is sad. In this sample my son is not feeling well. We were at the doctor's office waiting to see the doctor when I snapped this photo. The wall is blue, so there is already a blue cast, but if you look at the final photo, I further added to his under the weather mood by using a blue filter. Yellow creates a more nostalgic, vintage mood. Think about warm weather or old photos. In this sample the before photo is of my daughter happily collecting eggs on the farm. The happy feeling is amplified by using the yellow filter. Sepia also creates a vintage mood. Think old books or old photos. In this sample my son was quite distracted by a game when I snapped the photo. Here I show two versions of a sepia tone that were achieved with two different sepia filters in Photoshop. I like the result of the bottom right image the best. The melancholy mood really reflects upon my son's concentration. Black and white photos can take the focus off of distracting things in the background so that you can really focus on the subject of the photo. In the sample below my son is digging for treasure. There are a lot of things distracting the attention from the overall mood of the photo, so in this instance I switched the photo to black and white to change the focus onto the subject. Besides color, there are other ways to change the mood of a photo during post processing. Some of them include: * Creating contrast. This can change the mood of a photo. This is achieved by a few simple edits in a photo editing program. * Adding and subtracting light. Light has a great impact on the mood of a photo. If your subject is dark, you get the feeling of sadness. Adding light to a photo can improve an image just by making the subject easier to see. * Sharpening the image. Making the subject the focus of the image draws your eye to the subject. * Blurring the background. This helps leave focus on the subject by making the background less visible and distracting. Stay tuned. Some of these tips will be discussed in more detail in a Photoshop Post Processing thread and a Light Room Post Processing thread. Keep your eyes peeled for both of those threads here in the We Are Storytellers Forum!
