After the Shutter

It's hard to keep a blog alive, but while I'm learning and while it's still fun I'll continue. 

So, what to write about? Keeping with the general subject matter of Camera stuff I'm thinking  about what happens to my pictures after they are in the camera. Lot's of possibilities.  The simplest is direct uploading to a web site like Apples "Photostream"  This can be done by the camera or phone without human intervention. I am not sure how all this works, but what I dislike is that all pictures go with no selection on my part.  So when I take 10 pictures in burst mode of a bird in flight, all ten pictures go. The photostream is completely unorganized and would not be of interest to many people, not even myself.

Next up is so called amateur photo editing software, Apples iPhoto and Picasa are examples. This is what I use.  I download from the camera to iPhoto all pictures. I immediately discard the junk, mistakes, obviously poor quality,  boring etc. photos.  The remainder I might sort or just leave in the iPhoto library. 

If I decide for some reason to use a photo I edit it.  That may be as simple as a crop or more complicated with color adjustments, exposure adjustments or more.  

Another thing I've been doing lately is crating something different with the photo using say, Image Tricks or Sketchmee.  

Here are some examples:

Cyrus

James Larson

Jenny

Beatrice

Leif

Another possibility is editing with a "Professional" program which means Adobe Photoshop or Apple's Aperture. I've used Photoshop Elements and have watched demos of Photoshop itself, but cannot see the use of such complicated programs.  I guess if one is a professional photographer, submitting to a magazine there might be some use. 

 I once watched a professional demonstrate how to tweak with Photoshop this and that in a photo of Alcatraz and the SF bay.  It took him a half hour or more to get it just the way he wanted it, but for the life of me I couldn't see how the finished product was any better.  It was different, but in my opinion, not better. Anyway, take a good picture to start with and there is no need to alter it.