I've been a little bummed the past couple of days. My sister Lola Farra, a professional photographer, just saw some of my pictures for the first time a couple days ago. Let's just say she wasn't impressed and thought they were over processed. I did sort of expect this reaction. I realized awhile back that we had very different processing styles. Just because I sort of expected it doesn't mean it hurt any less. She did say that she liked my composition and complimented a couple of my still life photographs which was nice. It's a little funny or so I've been trying to convince myself so that I don't cry. At the beginning of my photography journey, I thought that for sure I would process my images very similar to how my sister did as I have always been her biggest fan! I've always been convinced that I'm NOT biased, but that her pictures are truly fantastic! I know that if I wasn't her sister that I'd still feel the same of her work. She is an amazing photographer!
Anyhow, enough feeling sorry for myself! After thinking about things for a few days and talking it over with my husband, I decided to tone it down a bit. I feel a little embarrassed though like I can't trust my own judgement. Yes I know that I processed the @$#! out of some of my pictures but it was only because I enjoyed it so much. It really allowed me to get creative! Are the pictures that I've been so proud of really that bad? I know I really can't ask that question in a post and expect to get a truthful answer.
Well, I'm not putting my camera down yet! I know I can do this and no way am I giving up especially considering I have about the cutest photo subject in the world! How horrible would it be to deprive the world of enjoying pictures of the most adorable little girl? That would be so wrong ;o)
So here they are. A new set of pictures. I was determined to get some great SOOC shots so that it would be almost impossible for me to find anything to edit! Isn't that a photographer's goal anyway? To take gorgeous SOOC shots and have to do as little editing/processing as possible? Per Ashley's suggestion at Ramblings and Photos, I set my camera to manual and just went for it! My shutter speed was mainly 125, ISO at 400, and Aperture around f/5.6. I set Alivia up near my kitchen slider where the light is best so that I didn't have to use a flash. I was pretty happy with the originals so I barely had to do any tweaking. I rarely had to adjust exposure, if at all, which was great. I think I tended to over expose my shots during processing which would leave very little detail left on the face. On a few, I adjusted color. I toned some of them down and desatured while others needed absolutely no color adjustment at all! GO ME! So, again, here they are. There is much more detail in her face though I noticed her eyes tend to photograph darker than they really are. I didn't apply any airbrushing or wrinkle removing actions. Okay, okay, so I used a blemish removing tool to remove a scratch from her cheek and chin, but I swear that's all I used :o) I did, however, run some of my Paint the Moon actions such as Color Dream Glow and Basic B&W on a few of these. I tweaked the opacity of the layers to maintain the detail and contrast of her skin. To finish them off, I applied some of my favorite vintage frames.
I still like my "over-processed" pictures that I've been sharing on this blog. I'm not quite convinced they are not good pictures. I am not completely ready to up and change my processing style but I definitely want to be open minded. Who's to say they are really over processed anyway? It's just one person's opinion. I have to keep reminding myself of this and learn to trust my own judgement. I guess I'll have to work on that. I do have to admit that I am liking a lot of these pictures just as much if not more than some in my previous posts.
This one needed a little exposure adjustment...
Not much tweaking here...
In this one, I actually added more contrast to her face. Not sure I like it better though.
See, little tweaking involved...
I had to use a flash on these last three.
These last few are from a few days ago before I had even spoken to my sister. I wanted to post them anyway. They are great shots of Livvy's teeth!
It's great to have a sister who's a professional, but at the same time...don't let her feedback get you down. The only way any of us learn is by trial and error (at least that's how I learn). I've never really thought that you over-process your photos...but what I notice in most people is that they tend to over-process at first because it's so fun and then tone it down over time. If you're just shooting for you...who cares?!
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