I've had my Nikon D5200 DSLR for couple of months now and I finally decided to try editing my photos. While I don't dare purchase a subscription based editing software like Photoshop or Lightroom, I found one quite powerful and completely free software for RAW format editing: RawTherapee, which has so many adjusting possibilities that I've barely tried half of them.
So, here's 3 photos – before and after – that I decided to experiment with and see if I could improve their look. Feel free to tell what you think about the results.
1. Daylight Moon
Shutter speed:1/250 Aperture: f/8 ISO: 200
I don't exactly remember what I did, but regardless, I did something that got a nice blue color for the sky that makes the moon pop up from the background. Green is also greener, I think saturation is what I added, not too much, but just the right amount. I did some detail stuff to make the branches appear bit sharper than in the original and added "Local Contrast" which makes the dark shades (like the birch stripes) appear bit more darker. Then I cropped the picture to get rid of the excess stuff especially on the right to highlight the Moon better.
2. Plane contrail
Shutter speed:1/400 Aperture: f/10 ISO: 100
On the first round I somehow ended with the following:
But upon realizing that it looks like God had pissed on the sky, I tried again. I actually like this photo, too, but wanted to make another version with more clarity at the time.
I added a "Graduated Filter", as it is called, to tune down the dominating sun light on the left so it doesn't compete for attention with the trail. Then I found "Dynamic Range Compression" which allowed me to bring up the foreground which was completely dark in the original. Some other tiny adjustments too, but those mentioned were the most notable ones.
3. Sunset
Shutter speed:1/160 Aperture: f/6.3 ISO: 200
This picture experienced the biggest make-up, thus being the most experimental of the three.
I added a lot of white balance which makes the overall look change from cold blue to warm yellow. And again I did adjustments to bring up some of the detail from the branches. (I just realized what's common between all the pictures: birches). Maybe there would exist a better edit for this picture, but at least there's much more detail on the sky which was covered by the overexposure of the sunlight in the original.
This was actually pretty fun, might do another one of these in the future.
I would recommend trying out Affinity photo if it's offering a free trial :)
It's a fun editor which allows easy control over multiple different ways to edit the photo. I'm using only a few of them like contrast editing, white balance adjusting, sharpening the photos and removing treble from the photos in higher ISO shots.
Does it come with infinite trial? :P
No but if you like it, you can ultimately purchase it with a single payment and not an infinite monthly fee <3
But only if you're serious enough to use it in the future and it has features you'd need.
Hmm honestly, I like all the pictures, both the edited ones and the originals. The one with the trees, I like how the moon pops out in the edited version, although I liked the trees in the original better. The airplane, I like the second, to be honest. I don't know why you say it looks like God pissed :)))
As for the last one, I like the edited version, particularly the warm, bright yellow around the sun. But I prefer the original, because the light has great contrast with the white snow :)
Good luck on perfecting your editing skillz :D
I might have a borderline personality because at one moment I like the other one and then I like another more. Now looking at it, I like it. Just depends on the purpose what is preferred, I guess.
Interesting, I just don't like the first one :P
Yeah, that's needed – just pressing random knobs and hoping something goes right :D
One more thing: I tried, and the pictures look really different with different screen modes, but I used sRGB when making the edits.
I use Darktable, another free piece of software. It has served me well so far and I haven't even explored half of what it is capable of. It can handle the raw formats of most camera manufacturers. And the Nikon format called NEF it knows how to handle as well.
So many different programs :D I might give it a try though.
It's used by @gamer00 as well. He had some experience with it which means there would benefits for you to adopt it, too.
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@celestal great pictures you have here. I will prefer to choose if i am to pick that day light moon
Captivating photos @celestal, you're good with this. Keep it up
Thanks, will do another one of these for sure.
Nice! Lots of fun with the new toy to keep you excited. Good shots and thanks for sharing!
Yea, editing brings a whole another game into photography.
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hi guys
this is aditya, if any one interested in photography editing then can check out this video. this seems awesome.
https://clk.ink/x1Mu