I’ve been getting much more into photo-blogging this summer, and in the process, I’ve become more comfortable with photo-editing techniques and technology. Participating in the #photoaday meme has certainly encouraged me to play around with pictures, and every now and then, I like to share how I create a particular post. All of my editing is done on mobile devices; in order to replicate my techniques precisely, you’ll need the Apple iPhoto app for iOS, but I’m sure there are suitable apps for other platforms as well.
The #photoaday prompt for Sunday, August 26 was “Dream.” While there are a number of ways to approach this, I thought I’d search my photo library for a landscape that looked like it could be dreamlike. I chose this one, taken at the Grand Canyon in June of 2008, and opened it in iPhoto to edit it.
My first step in preparing a shot for #photoaday is cropping it square, so it will optimally display in Instagram. I cropped this one below the horizon level and narrowed it, focusing in on the foreground.
I increased the contrast with the Exposure edit tool, and tweaked the colors using the “Blue Skies” and “Greenery” sliders in the Color tool.
Next, I opened the Brushes tool. I used “Soften” on the background and the shrubbery in the foreground, and “Sharpen” on the rock formation. My final change was applying a “Saturated Film” effect, with Vignette, from the Vintage selection bar in Effects.
I didn’t have any other iPhoto adjustments I wanted to make, so at that point I saved the edit picture to the Camera Roll and re-opened it in Phonto, where I added tagging text. When I finished that, I was ready to post to Instagram.
Some of my photo posts don’t get nearly this much alteration, but I thought the “dream” prompt lent itself to a bit more creativity.
If you’ve been thinking about joining #photoaday, take a look at the September prompts and see what inspires you!
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
