How I Edit My Blog Photos

I did my favourite post ever this week, it was just everything I wanted with autumn photography, so I thought Id show you how I edit the photos. It's quite simple but I think it has a good effect on the images.

(Using Photoshop CC 2015)

Title Images:

 First of all, I use the Elliptical Marquee tool to select a circular part of the image. This works best for images that have a lot of detail in the background because it creates a blank background for your writing. 

Then I go to 'adjustments' and select the levels tool. On the bottom bar, I slide the left button along so that it is closer to the white; this adds a white hue but it is not fully transparent. It allows you to see parts of the texture in the image and makes the circle less harsh.

Then I just type the title into the circle. I use text from DaFont because theres so many to chose from. Its amazing if you're looking for blog fonts!!

Levels:

As you can see, the image beforehand was quite dull and not very appealing. By changing the levels you change how exposed the image is, which can save you a lot of time when you're out on a shoot and can't really see enough to change the settings correctly. 

I usually just make the image more exposed because it makes it brighter and more appealing, then I increase the contrast a bit more so that the image isn't faded. If I feel like it's too intense I slide the middle bar, to increase the white balance in the image, which dulls the colours down a bit.

My photography teacher told me that you should slide both bars in until they are at the edge of the biggest sections. This just makes sure there is a balance of exposure and contrast in the image. 

Depth of Field:

With this photo I want the main focus to be on the jumper, so by adding Gaussian Blur, you can get a more intense depth of field/focus. As you can see the image already has a good depth of field/focus because manual focus has been used but if you don't use this or don't have the lens you want, this is a really easy way to fake it. 

So I used the 'quick selection tool' to highlight the part of the image that I wanted to be blurred, then I went into filter - blur - Gaussian Blur. This is the most natural blur that I've found, it just mimic the camera so well. You can chose how much blur you want to add, so it's easy to tailor to you photos. 

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you have and tips and tricks on editing, I'd love to hear! 

Sophie X