The Ultimate Blog Party 2012!

Welcome to my second, no wait, THIRD Ultimate Blog Party post!  Wow, I've been participating for the past three years!  Time flies!  My first Blog Party post got deleted for some reason but here's my post from last year.  Read it if you want to know more about me and my blog.  I'm too lazy to re-post the same info.

To be honest, I wasn't sure I was going to participate this year.  Mommy's Camera has taken somewhat of a back seat to my new adventure: Toys In The Dryer.  However, I have some loyal readers (thanks guys) who have stuck with me despite wanting to quit.  I have finally learned that it's ok to do photography for myself and make this blog for me and no one else.  So...I'm back, I just don't know how often I'll post.

My girls are still my favorite models to photograph, but I also love macro stuff.  Since Instagram came out on Android a few weeks ago, I'm now addicted to that!  You can find me under the username Mommystoys (a combo of my two blog names).

Go ahead and dig through my content.  The "handwritten" links above will have the most fun stuff. Then go party on other people's blogs till well after the sun goes down (but don't stay up till the sun rises!)!

facebook.com/mommyscamera
twitter.com/mommyscamera
jamie {at} mommys camera {dot} com

Super Simple Photo Editing 2

Way back in 2009 I did a post titled "Super Simple Photo Editing".  I've come a LONG way since those overly edited photos I thought looked good.  I still have a lot to learn, but in learning, I have determined that "natural" edit is my preferred choice.  Most of the time I simply adjust a few color curves and run an "unsharp" mask and that's all I do for editing.  Sometimes though, a more heavy edit is needed to get the look I'm going for.

Though the above edit doesn't look all that heavy, it required more than just a simple color curve and "unsharp" mask.  I did this edit using Photoscape (free editing software) because it was quicker and easier than my usual Gimp (another free software).

Here we go, my edit in 5 simple steps:

Step 1)  I cropped the image into a square because I thought it would look best without so much background.

Step 2)  I attempted a basic white balance correction but the white background was still a bit blue/gray.

Step 3)  I did a medium "bloom" to brighten the photo and make the flower pop a little more. 

Be careful with bloom though as it can blur your photo and give it a "dreamy" feel.

Step 4) I gave it a medium Portra to make one last pop.

Step 5)  Sharpen.  I usually don't go all the way up to 13 because it looks overly sharpened but this time it looked nice.

There you have it!  What do you think of my editing?  Be honest...