During April, the One Four Challenge team is not posting the usual weekly image editing work.  Our project host, Robyn Gosby, has suggested we use the month to conduct a Review of our past work in any way we choose. Some participants are reworking some of their images, a few are displaying what they have done in one post and others are just having a break.  I am opting to reflect on what I learnt in six months of an absolutely wonderful photography project.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this journey of discovery.  Editing had not been part of my routine.  I was taking photos, illustrating sailing journals with them, submitting a few with articles I published in magazines.  However in the main my images were untouched.  What I took with my camera was what you saw!  But then, I became interested in the process of editing photos.

There is a bit of controversy about photo editing.  Some people call it cheating while others call it getting the most out of your image. I am in the later clan…  Having done some ‘developing’ of black and white images in my uni days,  I think the ‘processing’ we do with our digital images is just like what we did with our ‘developing’ in the dark room.  Only we have far more tools at our disposal.  So to me the term ‘developing’ is so much more apt, because that it what we do with digital photo processing.  We are developing our images and putting ourselves, our emotions and our vision into them.  We can be as subtle or creative as we wish.

And that brings us to this One Four Challenge.  There are several photo editing projects one can take part in on WordPress.  What attracted me to this one, organised by Robyn at Captivate me, was that it invited beginners and experienced “developers” alike.  The promise of sharing ideas and learning in the process was appealing and I took the plunge from the onset of the project.

So what have I learnt to date?

Cropping

Such a basic thing, but the beginning of every process!  Learning what is important to focus on, what to keep, what to remove, and how the impact of an image can be changed simply by ‘cutting’ and resizing is one of the fundamentals I learnt.  Every month involved some degree of cropping.  But the December crop of the White Tern to focus only on her tail was a good example of how cropping can open up different possibilities.

December Week 2 – Crop of the white tern’s tail

Filter Effects

When I discovered filters, it was like opening up a toy box!  Experimenting with different ‘special effects’ was so much fun.  The ability to stylise, alter shapes, add texture, turn a photo into a painting, introduce distortions, brought another dimension to photographs.  Here is the first in November, and the last in March.  These might not be to everyone’s liking, but boy is it fun!

Distortions

Glowing Edges

Layers

What a revelation!   The best example of this was my manipulation of the “White Tern” in December.  It took me for ever to get the results, but it is the single most important element of editing I have learnt.  I used 6 different layers to give the white tern its feathered friends, each time resizing and reorienting the embossed tern.  I used 5 layers to get the tail spin effect and then the blue to aqua graduation.

December Week 1 – Embossed layers

December Week 4 – Tail Spin

Apps

The ability to download free or inexpensive apps and blend photography with painting was another discovery. With some of these, it really does feel like a bit of cheating.  You choose the effect you want.  The software does the heavy lifting while you watch things unfold on your screen.  Only minor tweaking is needed afterwards.  I experimented with apps such as Tangled FX (used for the spoonbills) and Sketch Guru (used for the white tern) in January and found it quite liberating.  I added the software FotoSketcher to my tool kit in March (used for the butterfly).  No more guilty feeling about “this is not really photography”.  I simply focused on the artistic results I wanted to create in my mind’s eye.

Our January No1 vote

My March favourite

Voted equal No1 for December

Colour

February was about playing with colour intensity.  Sometimes I can be shy about enhancing or deepening colour.  And yet it is so potent to reveal particular elements and intensify what’s there.  So experimenting with not only saturation, but the blend modes of layers such as the colour burn tool was great practice.

February Week 2 – Colour Burn

Light

Another crucial aspect of photography is light and the different atmosphere it creates.  The one image can look so different depending on the light in its environment.  This was a very useful lesson about enhancing, hiding or revealing important features.  By working with shadows, highlights and lighting effects I could bring out beautiful details, hide distracting ones and change the mood of my image.

So there you have it.  My reflections on 6 months of photo processing, using Photoshop Elements 9 and a few apps and plug ins.  There is still a whole lot to learn!  I have only just scratched the surface.  But having subscribed last month to an Adobe Creative Cloud plan with Lightroom and Photoshop, I am on a steep learning curve and will relish continuing my training in photo ‘developing’.

Favourites

I thought I would end this post with a gallery of my favourites and yours.  Thank you to those of you who provided feedback and suggestions, and for voting for your preferred interpretations.  Click on the first image to display in full screen slideshow.

Pampas Grass

Voted No1 in November

Voted equal No1 for December

My favourite & voted equal No1 for December

Our January No1 Vote

Our February No1 Vote

My March favourite

Voted No1 for March