Today, I saw an opportunity to take photos of my handsome little man. Unfortunately, I have not learned the ins and outs of action photography yet as I have been taking mostly still shots so I can learn the settings of my camera.
So my squirmy boy doesn’t know how to be still for even a second and my camera is on auto mode. The result, despite adequate natural lighting, was not good.
I played around in a trial version of PhotoShop Elements increasing the sharpness and saturation. That increased the noise, so I used NeatImage. I just couldn’t seem to get the photo how I liked it. Problem is it started off a bit blurry but the photo is just so darn cute that I wanted to try to “fix” it. I had grown quite attached to this photo that captures my son’s personality so well. But my attempts at fixing the problems failed.
I posted on Digital Photography School forum (thread here) and a member there came to my rescue. Using GIMP, Eric adjusted the blue colour cast, lightened the photo, and sharpened it twice. The result was a gorgeous photo of my little man!
Man! What a difference! I hadn’t done much post-processing on any of my past photos because PhotoShop is so darn expensive to buy. But GIMP (short for GNU Image Manipulation Program) is free and I was anxious to try it out right away! Here is my quick attempt at correcting the original photo, this time following Eric’s tips:
Not bad, huh? And I did that with a baby on my lap grabbing at the mouse to try and teeth on it. LOL Not as good as Eric’s post-processing, but it does give me hope that GIMP will do just as well as Photoshop!
Thank you to Eric for saving the day and thanks to Digital Photography School forum for being a place I can go for friendly and great help! :D
ETA: I was going to go to bed but I can’t stop playing in GIMP. (I’ll regret it tomorrow morning! LOL) Here’s my 2nd attempt at the photo:
No really… I’m going to bed this time… really… (after a tad more editing…)
Wow, that is amazing. And there she goes – becoming a post-processing diva! It happens to the best of us! haha
Bwhaha… I don’t know about being a diva but I have to admit GIMP is fun to play around with!
I’m still learning a lot about post processing. I use photoshop elements. I’ve heard good things about GIMP though. You did a great job!
Hooray for new ways to learn to edit pictures!
Your picture tuned out really well!
I was up until 1:00 trying new things in photoshop.
A friend I met on Flickr emailed me back and forth to help me.
Isn’t that so kind. Just like your acquaintance.
I use something called Lightroom for a lot of my editing.
It only costs 150.00 compared to the expensive ps.
Your baby is beautiful and won’t you have fun learning with him :o)
Happy to meet you Christine, Thank you for introducing yourself.