Getting The Best Out-Of-Camera

My previous blog post was all about finding the potential in a rather dull photo, showing you before-and-after examples on how you can save your images. This blog however, will focus on the opposite.

As you get photo assignments and need to deliver a product to a paying client, it's not all fun and play. Don't get me wrong, it's still the best way I can spend my time, I just can't afford to fool around as much ;) You'll learn the importance of taking a good photo in-camera. To do that, you must learn the settings of your specific model and adjust everything according to the light and motive of your photo. You will have to change these settings all the time as you move around, and the weather changes. The most important settings would definately be the shutter, the aperture and the ISO. I'm going to share some before-and-after shots with you that needed a minimal amount of editing.

Have a look at the before (top) and after (bottom) photos and try to see what I have done before you read on.

First of all - sorry Irene! :p This was not her most gracious moment during the photoshoot :)

In fear of stating the obvious, I have removed Irene from the photo (using another photo where she's out of the picture).. Secondly I have removed the yellow tint in Artico's coat. Last but not least I have lightened and sharpened it.

Try again to look at the two and see what I've done. The first thing is ofcourse the lead rope. That kinda always has to go. I have increased the saturation a teeny tiny bit. I'm always careful with the saturation because it's the first thing that makes the photo look unnatural (if you tweak it too much). So be careful! I have also made a small crop at the top of the photo to eliminate what I see as too much negative space. It also brings the subject a bit closer which is nice :) And that's about it!

A touch of saturation and sharpness. That's it! (bottom is edited).

This one is a bit tricky. Because of some branches that were in the way, I didn't get Asli centered enough. So I simply "borrowed" some more of the right side of the photo and pasted it onto the one I was editing. Again I have made a small crop at the top, and even at the bottom. A touch of saturation and sharpness. Lead rope - off :)

This photo of Vanilla could have just been used straight out of camera, but I wanted to give it a more thourough feel and removed the halter. The photo expresses a different mood and more freedom. I've dimmed the top of the photo with a gradient filter to make it more soft. Oh, and if you look a bit closer, I have also muted the blue color of the dogs collar tags. I found them too distracting when they were blue :)

A crop at the bottom, and a gradient filter on top for the burnt out sky. Sometimes I'm forced to work with harsh sunlight and I just have to make the best of it. This photo was originally a bit too tight on the left side, so like I did with Asli, I borrowed some "left side" from another photo :)

The very last photo for you in this blog. The beautiful Dole horse Borken. I have lightened him up a bit (selectively) and removed some imperfections in his coat. I feel those are ok to remove because they are not a permanent feature on the horse. Flies has to go aswell ofcourse! Other than that I have cropped the photo to be a square. The original had a bit too much butt in it ;) I have cropped out most of Kathrines hand but also cloned out some of it.

I hope you found the blog helpful! It is so important to always try and a capture the perfect photo when you are out shooting. Thinking "I can just fix it later" will cost you a lot of time, and the quality of the photo and file will always be reduced the more you edit it. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to write in the comment field!

Thank you so much for reading :)

My very best wishes,

Anette Augestad