I have been asked lately about my photos. Specifically, how do I get such "good shots". The answer is easy. I doctor them up after I shoot them. The two easiest things to do to make your photos look richer and more detailed is to adjust the Brightness and Contrast. You can do this in any photo editor. I use iPhoto, and when I want to get even more detailed, Photoshop.
For example, here is a shot of
Chris Plesko on the South Rim of Gooseberry Mesa. The image below is how the camera saw it. I have done nothing to it.
It's not a bad shot as is. But a little fine tuning will add subtle differences that will help it out some.
In this next version I simply brought down the brightness, and upped the contrast. This will bring out the colors more, and also darken the darks, and brighten the lights. I usually just drag the slider until I feel it looks "right". It can be fun to play with the settings to get different effects. I also upped the saturation just a bit to help the colors pop.
You can see now how the shadows on the rocks are darker, making them stand out more against the rock. The rock also is richer in color adding more contrast against the sky. Chris is more silhouetted, which I think adds to the "cool factor" of the shot. Of course that can be a preference thing.
In this final image, I added a gradient to the sky with Photoshop. I find that gradients add depth to the image, and can help emphasize the subject of the photo a little more as well.
All of these adjustments take about 5 minutes to make, and can help enhance the look of photos shot with any camera.
So there you have my secret to making photos look just a little bit better.
Today's weight: 180.5
Read the complete post at http://www.epicriding.com/2008/01/photo-enhancement-basics.html