Photography

1 readers

1 users here now

A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

founded 11 months ago

MODERATORS

communick@viewfinder.pro

Editing photos, and feeling like the more I do it, the less I know what I'm doing. (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by PurpleEverything908@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

14 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Background: I've been ~~a photographer~~ taking photos for over 10 years now. I like editing my photos to bring them more in line with the feeling of the shot, rather than keeping it closer to the journalistic style.

I have purchased presets that I never like the look of, learned what all the settings in Lightroom do (or so I thought), but somehow can't make them do what I want them to do.

For example, I was trying to emulate the editing style of Amy Shore (car photographer), as I really like her almost ephemeral/pastel-y shadows, and bring it closer to my preferences. Went into Lightroom, edited the settings I thought most responsible for the look and ended up with... garbage.

In a typical Dunning–Kruger turn of events, I am starting to think I may need to brush up on my editing skills/knowledge. Where do I start? Who is a good youtuber?

Thanks c:

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Mmatthew93@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Listen, the problem is that you have no idea what you're doing. So you should learn about retouching and photography more. Buying presets is completely absurd to a good photographer, it's a waste of money. Lightroom is very easy to use and is a minimal part of retouching. 10 years or 40 of experience are irrelevant. Better a month of experience trying to learn new things. So this cold shower was needed because you need to realize that you need a lot of learning,not just some advice on how to edit photos. Once you know the technical aspects of photography and you know the ins and outs of a software like Photoshop, because you studied from good teachers or professional resources, you can easily replicate whatever style you want without having to think much about it. It's like the gym where people work out for years completely wrong and achieve no results, while others study from the best resources and achieve a lot in just 6 months.

Now I highly suggest piximperfect as a YouTube channel. He shows you the correct ways to use Photoshop.

[–] PurpleEverything908@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Thank you for advice, I’ll definitely look him up :)