Photo editing has saved many less than memorable photos. What did we do before digital editing? This week Tina gave us Lens Artists Photo Challenge #134 “From Forgettable to Favorite.” Do take a look at Tina’s post to see how she has edited her photos to create beautiful ‘favorites’. Here are my “Messy” to ‘Memorable” photos.
A simple crop was needed for this photo taken at the World Equestrian Games. The green blob on the right is a plant decoration at the side of the ring, and the pink blob is a person in the stands Here is the edited photo with less green blob and the person in the BG is gone.


The photo below was taken from the deck at the back of our house. In order to get as much width of the frosted trees and to achieve optimum focus I had to take a wider shot and include the fencing at the edge of our property. I knew I could edit it out later . I also added texture and clarity in the edited photo.


In this photo of Belinda Trussell riding in the arena I felt the green windows reflected in the arena mirrors were a distraction. Black and white removed that and I brought up the highlights and the black to make a greater contrast. I do not use “contrast ” on its own but make changes to the black, white, highlights and shadow. Photo has also been cropped and levelled.


Here is another photo of Belinda . I brought up the whites, highlights and the black of the horse and took out the color saturation of the wood and the blues in the windows behind them. This also removed the color from Belinda’s boots and breeches.


The lighting in the arena is something that I cannot control . Using a flash is out of the question around horses. So I just take a photo, knowing there is not enough light, and I can edit it later. Here is Megan Lane helping Belinda. She is there in the dark. When I reduced the shadows and blacks and brought up the whites and highlights she appeared! I like doing this better than just bumping up the overall exposure. I also brought up the luminescence to give her a better look now she was in the light. Sometimes when shooting in dark conditions the higher ISO will cause too much noise. I did not want Megan’s face to have noise!


Thank you Tina for this challenge. I cannot remember editing anything back in the days of film. I vaguely remember that it you pushed the ASA you got more color saturation. I really enjoy the editing process and I use Adobe Lightroom Classic. One of these days I am going to get around to doing the online Photoshop course I have paid for but I need to find the time!!
I’d love to hear from you!