Quick Digital Imaging Tip 43/101: Alter Your Mood In Lightroom, Photoshop, Aperture and Photoshop Elements

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Digitally enhanced image.
This is tip #43 of 101 digital imaging tips that I plan to post here over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Today's tip: Alter your mood – the mood of your photograph - in the digital darkroom.

Original image.
When it comes to a photograph, the mood and the feeling of that image are of the utmost importance.

The subject helps to determine the mood of a photograph – but digital enhancements can also affect the mood.

The opening picture for this blog post has a different mood than the straight-out-of-the-camera shot. In Photoshop, I changed the mood by:
• Increasing the blues;
• Darkening the image;
• Increasing the saturation.
• Increasing the contrast.

You can do the same thing in other digital imaging editing programs.

I applied the same enhancement to the image below on the right.

Getting back to altering your mood in Lightroom and Photoshop, you can actually alter your mood! When you are pleased with an image adjustment or enhancement, it can actually put you in a good mood!

Explore the light,
Rick
P.S. These are pictures of the New Croton Dam, one of the locations we photograph on my Croton Shoots Workshops.

You can save $100 if you sign up before January 31, 2011 for a Croton Shoots Workshops. Use this code: 13101.

Quick Digital Imaging Tip 42/101: Find Your Focus

This is tip #42 of 101 digital imaging tips that I plan to post here over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Today's tip: Just because you have an auto focus camera . . . that does not mean that your camera knows where to focus!

Finding your focus (in life and in a scene) is important. 

Different focus points tell a different story.

Which one of these two images do you prefer – and why? Post a comment here so others can see your viewpoint.

Explore the light,
Rick



Quick Digital Imaging Tip 41/101: People in Pictures Help With Stock Photo Sales

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This is tip #41 of 101 digital imaging tips that I plan to post here over the next few months. Stay tuned.

Today's tip: People in pictures help with stock photo sales.


The picture immediately above is nice enough, but the picture that opens this post is much more a "lifestyle" image, and "lifestyle" images sell better than beautiful scenic shots.
 
Even when a person is very small, or even tiny in a photo, that person adds a sense of scale to the image. Whenever possible, try to include a person in the scene.

And speaking of stock sales, I know someone who makes $3,000 a month in stock sales on iStock Photo. The key to making money in stock is to have many, many pictures uploaded and available.


If you want some tips on selling sock photos, check out this book: Taking Stock: Make money in microstock creating photos that sell.

Explore the light,
Rick