How I Edit My Photos

When I upload photos onto Facebook, it's no surprise that the quality drops. But that's okay. I deal with it.
I typically upload them into an album, and then I upload the edits into another album, one I made specifically for edited photos. Pretty often, I get messages from people asking what I do to my photos and what programs I use. It's kind of mind boggling, to be honest. I've seen professional photos and mine aren't there. But I figure I could just post this for the people who are curious.

I'm using a MacBook Pro and Adobe Lightroom.

First, I upload my photo into Lightroom.

All of my photos are shot RAW. Because of this I can change the white balance if I choose.

You cannot do this with JPEG.

I almost always select "Auto Tone". I can always undo it if I don't like it.

From here, I click "Develop". I can choose a preset if I feel like it, but I only use them if I'm wanting to achieve a certain look. There are hundreds of presets you can download for free online, or you can buy them.

Typically, I will boost up the blacks and contrast. I like a lot of contrast in my photos.

I also bring up the clarity. Sometimes the vibrance and brightness, but not always.

Then I always boost up the sharpening and detail. I also throw up the luminance to kind of remove the grain/noise. Not a ton, though. You don't want the photo looking like you smudged it all over the place.

You can end it here, or you can throw a vignette on it. For a vignette, I like using a preset. You don't have to, of course.

Then simply click File > Export.

Type in all the info you want/need.

Then you just click Export and wait for it to finish.

Pretty simple, not near as elaborate as most photographers, I'm sure. But it works for me.

And there you go. Easy peasy.
And now you know exactly what I do and how I do it.
Don't be scared to experiment with your photos. That's how you learn the best, in my opinion.

June Photo Challenge - END.

I made it halfway through June. Woohoo, right?

Well, I'm over it, as bad as that sounds.
Typically, I'm not a quitter. I mean, I have a bunch of WIPs in my craft room, but I eventually see them through. But this? This just got old for me.

I appreciate what the challenge gave me. I learned a lot about how I'm comfortable to handle my camera, what the best ways are for me to shoot different things, but at the end of it all I got really sick of having to take photos of things by a list. I prefer candid shots of my kids over anything else.

I still have a lot to learn about my camera, but I'm going to do that in my own time. For now, I want to get back to blogging food and crafts and stuff. And to do that, I need to not have to worry about taking a certain photo and trying to get it to look right.

So, goodbye June Photo Challenge. It's been fun.

June Photo Challenge - Day 16

Day 16 - Mason Jars/Jelly Jars

These are repurposed jars I made for a reward system for the kids.
Okay, not "made". But...I mod podge'd the letters onto them. And then I painted the lids with chalkboard paint. I'm not sure how well that'll work yet, but I planned on making a post about the whole system. So we'll see. :)

June Photo Challenge - Day 15

Day 15 - Motion

What gives more motion than bubbles that magically float in the air?

I love bubbles. I'll never grow out of that love.

June Photo Challenge - Day 14

June 14 - Someone You Love

Oh, my dear husband.
He deals with so much craft crap.
I love him so much.

June Photo Challenge - Day 13

Day 13 - Reminds You Of Childhood.

Daring duck of mystery, 

Champion of right, 

Swoops out of the shadows, 

Darkwing owns the night. 

Somewhere some villain schemes, 

But his number's up. 

(3-2-1) Darkwing Duck (When there's trouble you call DW)

Darkwing Duck (Let'sget dangerous) 

Darkwing Duck (Darkwing, Darkwing Duck!) 

Cloud of smoke and he appears, 

Master of surprise. 

Who's that cunning mind behind 

That shadowy disguise? 

Nobody knows for sure, 

But bad guys are out of luck. 

'Cause here comes (Darkwing Duck) 

Look out! (When there's trouble you call DW) 

Darkwing Duck (Let's get dangerous) 

Darkwing Duck (Better watch out, you bad boys) 

Darkwing Duck!

June Photo Challenge - Day 12

Day 12 - Sun Flare.



Lookie! There's a bunny caught in my flare!

June Photo Challenge - Day 11

Day 11 - Silhouette

<3 My babies.

June Photo Challenge - Day 10

Day 10 - Animal.

This is Izzy, aka Isabel, aka Izzerkinz.
And I chose her picture for today because..well...I haven't yet posted any photos of the disastrous hair cut I gave her. She's uneven and choppy and just rough looking. It definitely didn't make her any cuter, though she honestly wasn't all that adorable to begin with.
Kyle loves it, though. He's always wanted a straggly looking mutt.

Click "read more" for some more photos of her before and after her hair cut.

June Photo Challenge - Day 9

Day 9 - Fresh Fruit.

Nomnomnom. I love grapes.
I hate cleaning them. And picking them from the stem thing.
But I love 'em.

June Photo Challenge - Day 8

Day 8 - Sunset

The best I can do from my back porch. You make do with what you have. :)

June Photo Challenge - Day 7

Day 7 - High Angle

If you couldn't tell, getting a high angle shot is pretty difficult for us short folk. However, I was able to climb ontop of the loveseat and capture the homo sapien male species in his natural habitat.

Thanks, Kyle.

June Photo Challenge - Day 6

Day 6 - Books.

I don't think that J.K. Rowling had any idea her magical world would turn into such global phenomenon.

I personally didn't get to see the moves until I was 17. I didn't read the books until I was 19 (I think). I grew up in the religious family on the block, the one that didn't celebrate Halloween, the one that judged EVERYONE and decided their faults and mistakes were their one way tickets to Hell, yeah. I grew up in that family. Don't worry, I'm not like them.

The Harry Potter series entrapped me into a whimsical world of magical creatures, unshakable friendships, and love that I never knew was possible for any family to have. They are, bar none, my favorite series to read.

Thank you, J.K. Rowling.

June Photo Challenge - Day 5

Day 5 - Breakfast Today

The mug says hot chocolate. My heart says coffee. Yes, this is a very typical breakfast for me.
The best part of my waking up really is Foldgers in my cup.

June Photo Challenge - Day 4

Day 4 - Clouds

Kinda hard to do when there's no clouds in the sky, but I did my best.

June Photo Challenge - Day 3

Day 3 - Hands

Special thanks to Gabe for that wicked Hi-5. :) I love my boy.

June Photo Challenge - Day 2

Day 2 - Your Favorite Shoes

I'm...barely ever out of flip-flops. Even in the winter. I get a lot of crap for it.

I deserve it, actually.

Kyle and I went to St. Louis in March for an Evanescence concert (which rocked, by the way. Amy Lee was SO much better than the last time I saw her) and I wore my flip-flops all day while we walked around St. Louis. We went to the zoo, the Arch, and just had a day of it. Me, being the idiot that I am, removed the calluses off my feet the night before, which were on my feet to begin with from the rubbing against the plastic on the flip-flops all the time. Needless to say, I came home with 10+ huge blisters on my feet.

But I still wear them all the time.

June Photo Challenge - Day 1

When Abby from Projects For Your Nest posted the June Photo-A-Day challenge on her blog, I didn't know about it. I stumbled on it on Pinterest.

But you should SO check out her blog. No lie.

I figured it was about time I do one of these.

Day 1 - Self Portrait.

Ohai. :)

Naked House

It's true.

My house is naked.

Bare walls, nothing is decorating it. I mean, our upstairs bathroom is decked out in M&Ms stuff. And by decked out, I mean shower curtain, small rug, soap dispenser, soap dish, and toothbrush holder. That's about as extravagant as it gets here.

We have a few things here and there, but nothing amazing. 6 pictures in the house on display, one in a location that just looks awkward. We have a clock. We have empty picture frames on display on a sofa table (that we got FOR FREE on Craigslist). We have our football player cake toppers made by my aunt-in-law, who is super amazing, from our wedding cake.

She baked it herself, words and all.