Before and After

I LOVE before and afters. I like watching people get make-overs. I like seeing a dirty window right next to the one I just cleaned. It goes without saying, then, that Lightroom and Photoshop where made for me! Sometimes I wish I could erase my blemishes just like I do on photographs. Anyway, I do have a point to this if you stick with me. Before I got my DSLR, I thought using Photoshop was cheating and made pictures look fake. Then when I started using Photoshop (and making photos look really fake because I was so bad at it), I learned that nearly every. single. photographer. uses a photo editing program even if it's just to make minor corrections or enhancements. Actually, many photographers shoot in RAW and unlike shooting JPEGs, which are mildly processed by your camera, RAW images come out completely untouched leaving them a bit drab, so you basically have to process them yourself.

This Monday I have my very first RAW editing class with Damien Symonds. It's only two classes, but from the reviews I've read, it's well worth the price. Take a look at one of his before and after shots, then go back and look at all the others. His work is incredible. I'm so excited!

I thought it would be fun to post one of my before and after shots right NOW, before I take the class, then I'll post again once I've taken the class, and we can see if I've made any noticeable improvements. What do you think? Intriguing, right? How can you resist a before/after by yours truly?

Here's an underexposed shot I took earlier this week while, ironically, working on my exposure:

Now here it is with my edit (pre- first RAW class):

It's not a great shot, but whateva. The skin tones are still off, and it's overly saturated even though I tried to de-saturate it, but I did my best without spending hours hunched over the screen. We'll see what the guru has to say.

I'll re-edit it next week and post again.

Have a fabulous weekend! Take some pictures. I need to get off my computer and do that too!!