Photo Manipulation.

BrightLights. 

This photo was taken with a Canon 60D and a tripod, it is my brother and me. It is a little bit dark, dull and lifeless, that you cannot even see that there is someone at the photo. So what i did is I edited it using iPhoto on Mac, to start up I cropped it and cleaned up the edges. To make sure that the picture is oriented correctly, i used the straighten tool from the iPhoto Adjust palette. I enhanced it to instantly brightens the exposure of the photo and then adjusts its contrast levels based on preset criteria. After enhancing, I lightened it up by 4% and saturated it by 2 %. I also increased its Boost to 3%, by pumping this effect the image will increase its Brightness to small degrees. Then I used Edge Blur to smoothen the edge of the photo, and then used the sharpness adjustment to blur just a bit of the overall image. I played around it using the Adjusts tools, i increased its Exposure to 1.29% then its Shadow to 20% and the last effect that i applied is the Sharpening tool, it works pretty well but do not overdo it, images that you one to improve the most needs to be sharpened.

After applying all those effects here is the outcome. 

See the differences? It is now livelier that it makes the lights brighter and the trees more visible. The edges are blurry that makes the photo even more beautiful. Then I added my initials at the bottom to make it a little bit more professional.  

Once upon a child.

This photo was also taken by Canon 60D. It was my cousin; it’s hard to get a perfect shot with her so it was just a stolen shot. It is not dark as my first picture is, so I did not apply too much effect on it. What i just did is I used Enhance tool to automatically brighten the exposure and it made a little improvement on the photo. Same as what I did on my first photo, I improved its Boost by 3% and used the Edge Blur by 5%. Using these effects it makes the photo more alive and smoother. I increased its Exposure to 1.29% and its Contrast to 100% by using this effect both darker blacks and brighter whites increases. Then I adjusted its Saturation by 100% to make its color vibrancy look richer. Finally i used Tint and Temperature effect, it controls the green and red tone of the image. I adjusted the Tint to -2 that it makes the photo redder and lessen the amount of green. Then i adjusted its Temperature to -1, using this effect it gives the image even more of an Arctic chill. 

And so here is the result after making all the changes.

It is now more brighter and warmer. The quality of the image also improved.

Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion ordeception (in contrast to mere enhancement or correction), through analog or digital means. (Wikipedia)

iPhoto is a photo editor on Mac that lets you edit and enhance photos. It offers a wide range of advanced picture editing and touch-up tools. However, if you don’t understand terms like “exposure” and “contrast,” you might feel overwhelmed when you try to edit photos. 

Thanks for reading my blog, hope you enjoyed it :) 

Week 5: Assignment 2 - Photo Manipulation.