# How do you decide what to do with your pictures?



## Lovelace (Jun 11, 2011)

So since I've started experimenting with Photoshop and trying tutorials, I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the possibilities. I mean, there are hundreds of different effects you can use, and then at least 50 different ways to achieve each effect. So the question is, how do you know what effects will work best for your photos, or which ones to use, especially if you took them for fun and without a purpose in mind? I mean, you don't just turn a picture blue for the sake of turning it blue. But how do you know what you _should _do with it, or if anything needs to be done with it at all?


----------



## flea77 (Jun 11, 2011)

That's the "vision" part of the work. Don't take a picture unless you have a specific vision for it, then use your tools to achieve that vision.

Allan


----------



## Bitter Jeweler (Jun 11, 2011)

Have some fun learning what everything does! Generally an applied effect should add to the image, or help it to tell it's story, rather than using an effect just or the heck of it.Think of it like this...just be cause you can, doesn't mean it works.Familiarize yourself with useful things like adjusting levels, saturation, unsnarl mask, exposure, black & white conversion, cloning, workin with layers, selection tools, healing, lens correction, cropping, perspective cropping, selective blurring...But again, back to "what effect works best" with an image, it comes down to your creative intent. You are the boss!


Edit: Dear KmH, the forum is still ****ed up and lumping formatted text. Please don't read my post.


----------



## 480sparky (Jun 11, 2011)

flea77 said:


> ......... Don't take a picture unless you have a specific vision for it, then use your tools to achieve that vision.
> 
> Allan



Really?

So I should never go back to images I took 5 years ago and try new techniques, edit them for a customer's needs, or apply new technology?


----------



## flea77 (Jun 11, 2011)

480sparky said:


> flea77 said:
> 
> 
> > ......... Don't take a picture unless you have a specific vision for it, then use your tools to achieve that vision.
> ...



That depends. Delivering what a customer wants is a completely different animal. I have done some things I would never show anyone, because the customer wanted it that way, while I was trying not to gag.

But to clarify, snapping a zillion images and then applying various treatments is really not the way to go, you may find one that it interesting, you probably wont. Try to take a picture when you "see" something. Then apply whatever treatment you need to make the photo match your vision. Otherwise all you really learn is that this filter creates this effect. Visualizing it first allows you to play with effects, tweak them, until you get them to do what YOU want them to do which I think is a far batter approach.

Allan


----------



## 480sparky (Jun 11, 2011)

flea77 said:


> .............But to clarify, snapping a zillion images and then applying various treatments is really not the way to go, you may find one that it interesting, you probably wont. Try to take a picture when you "see" something. Then apply whatever treatment you need to make the photo match your vision. Otherwise all you really learn is that this filter creates this effect. Visualizing it first allows you to play with effects, tweak them, until you get them to do what YOU want them to do which I think is a far batter approach.
> 
> Allan



I totally agree, but I'd like to leave the door open for the future.  Who knows what's next?  Did anyone have any idea 30 years ago what photography would be like today?  What will it be like in another 30 years?  10 years?  Heck, by the end of this year the entire industry could be tossed ass over teakettle over the Next Big Thing (whatever that might be).  I'd love to go back and scan in my 164 bazillion K25 slides and start PPing them.  I've got a lot of bracketed shots that just scream out for HDR, and series of landscapes just ripe for stitching into panos.


----------



## KmH (Jun 12, 2011)

Sounds like the OP is more interested in doing graphic arts than in doing photography.

PS - I read it anyway Bitter. Maybe your browser is part of the issue? I'm an IE fanboy myself. :thumbup:


----------



## expo (Jun 12, 2011)

Lovelace said:


> So since I've started experimenting with Photoshop and trying tutorials, I'm kind of overwhelmed by all the possibilities. I mean, there are hundreds of different effects you can use, and then at least 50 different ways to achieve each effect. So the question is, how do you know what effects will work best for your photos, or which ones to use, especially if you took them for fun and without a purpose in mind? I mean, you don't just turn a picture blue for the sake of turning it blue. But how do you know what you _should _do with it, or if anything needs to be done with it at all?



An excellent question!


----------



## expo (Jun 12, 2011)

480sparky said:


> flea77 said:
> 
> 
> > ......... Don't take a picture unless you have a specific vision for it, then use your tools to achieve that vision.
> ...



I think that's putting too much emphasis on the choice of word 'take'. You could have recently discovered a way to convert a five year old, color image file into a 'platinum' toned monochrome, using software. You recognize that the image is perfect for this conversion, so you do it. The vision is not only acquisition but also selection and processing.


----------



## Lovelace (Jun 12, 2011)

So what I'm gathering from all of this is that 1) in order to know what effects will work, you have to familiarize yourself with all of them and study how they're used, and 2) you have to have at least some sense of purpose for each photo so that you know which effects are necessary; if you're taking random pictures just to practice, the editing is just for practice, and if you have a vision, your editing should match that vision. I suppose it's no different from writing. You can write a bunch of random ideas and call it a poem, but in order to make it mean something, you have to decide what you _want_ them to mean before you start trying to make something out of them.


----------



## IgsEMT (Jun 12, 2011)

Lovelace said:


> So what I'm gathering from all of this is that 1) in order to know what effects will work, you have to familiarize yourself with all of them and study how they're used, and 2) you have to have at least some sense of purpose for each photo so that you know which effects are necessary; if you're taking random pictures just to practice, the editing is just for practice, and if you have a vision, your editing should match that vision. I suppose it's no different from writing. You can write a bunch of random ideas and call it a poem, but in order to make it mean something, you have to decide what you _want_ them to mean before you start trying to make something out of them.


Kinda sort of... 
To take it one step further, at least how I was taught (but got spoiled by digital), make each frame count, otherwise you're just wasting film and $. I learned with medium format, back way when every frame was about $1.00 (bit less) so every wasted shot was a dollar in the trash. Today, I got a bit lazier but contrary to popular belief that digital frames are free, someone (actually on this forum) calculated that every frame you take and waste costs about 15-25 cents of shutter life.
On editing note - editing effect should match the vision, otherwise it isn't appealing to the eye. Most lay people when look at pictures can give you 3 answers about a picture - like it, don't like, not sure... *everything from lighting, composition, camera setting, editing and even subject matter will dictate how the final image will look.*
good luck


----------



## stevod (Jun 13, 2011)

Just play around and have fun.  But the original shot remains the most important bit.  If you don't get something there that's worth working with........

S


----------



## meggageg (Jun 13, 2011)

I usually edit my photos any different ways and then I choose whichever catches my eye more to share with the world.


----------



## stevod (Jun 13, 2011)

Good point.  Trying several things with the same shot will also give you a feel for the things that work and those that don't.  Or conversely, when to use certain effects to enhance certain shots.

S


----------



## amandalee (Jun 13, 2011)

What I find helps me learn the tools that are in Photoshop Elements 8 is looking up tutorials for the program and using themon my own pictures. I'll either take photos with that purpose or I will look through older pictures to see if that tutorial would work with it. Then I started learning the different things you can do by doing all the tutorials that I thought were interesting and started making my own things. For example: I wanted to to photograph someone underwater in a pretty dress... however this idea was crushed when I found out how much the casing was for my camera... so I thought what it something I can do to get this same effect? Then I thought about how the dress would move in water and the hair (mainly) the realized it would be the same as jumping... to keep myself from the torture of taking out a difficult background I decided the sky would be easy. So I had a friend jump on a trampoline  This was the result:


----------



## skywalker (Jun 16, 2011)

It depends on your sense of art... But trial and error is a must.


----------



## mgilvey (Jun 25, 2011)

Learn lots of techniques so you have them in your arsenal when you need them. Also expose your mind to lots of photography In all kinds of venues so you see what it looks like in that situation. I spend a lot of time studying b&w images that are printed in books and mags because I want to understand what makes some of them look silver. 

Subscribe to podcasts. My favorite for Fine art photography is LensWork by Brooks Jensen. Learn to critique - its not just the presenter who benefits, the critiquer learns about what they like. 

There's nothing wrong with going back to old images and reworking them with new skills, new vision, new ideas and improved software. Just make sure you learn to capture the best image your current device is capable of now so you have good files to go back to.


----------

