FINDING YOUR VISUAL EDITING STYLE

PHOTO EDITING 101

Finding Your Visual Style & Capturing ‘You’

One of my favourite things about blogging is the photography, I love shooting, capturing moments, editing & sharing photos. Whilst instagram should therefore be my favourite thing on earth (far from it, ahem), for now at least it’s the long form side of blogging & visual story telling I am most fond of. I love sharing multiple visuals, telling a story & showcasing my photos on my own canvas if you will! But there is one thing for sure that instagram does inspire when it comes to my photography it’s the art and wonders of editing. Now I am most definitely not talking about the infamous over editing and creating a false reality with your visuals, far from it. It’s the lighting, the colour tones & the visual style of the photo I find so inspired by, not least because of the incredible photographers (largely travel or professional photographers) that I follow on the gram!

My editing style, without overtly realising it, has always been very consistent. My favourite shooting condition has always been in beautiful sunlight (I honestly can’t understand when people prefer an overcast day, that being said morning and afternoons are better than that tricky midday sun), the sun behind me or my subject(i’ve never quite grasped shooting with sunlight on my subject)  and a wide open aperture to capture all the more light & create a beautiful sunlight drenched depth of field. Pretty much every picture i’ve ever taken and probably will ever take capitalises on these settings and conditions, and mostly my post shoot editing process is simple to say the least. A little check on whites & highlights, a little downing of saturation & often a little warming to create a warm feeling & tone. This hasn’t really changed, albeit a few years back I opted for cooler tones but regret those days immensely, but it’s always fun to learn more & evolve your style & taste as you evolve as a person.

I’ve always used lightroom but until recently I really kept my settings to the ‘basic’ side of things and never explored the tone curves, camera calibrations let alone colour tones! But as I do every now and then, I got myself into a 48 hour research hole a little while back (do you ever get those obsessions that keep you spell bound researching and reading more and more and more?) and found myself digging deeper into lightroom settings, analysing my favourite photos and their editing styles, and most importantly playing around with some of my own visuals & my editing techniques and visual style.

It’s worths saying now, i’m still a very firm believer in not over editing a photo, I want my visuals to be real, honest & a reflection of my reality.  No fake flying birds or sunsets here. But I did think it might be interesting to share with you a few things I’ve learnt & how I like too edit my photos with you all today!

HOW TO SHOOT ON MANUAL . HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM YOUR OLYMPUS PEN . LEARN TO USE YOUR DSLR

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For me editing is the finishing touch to something  you’ve already taken love and care creating, it’s that little touch of lipstick to finish a look or the cherry on top of the cupcake! It’s not the bread and butter, and that’s always important to note. There’s also no right or wrong, and most definitely not one size fits all. In fact one thing is for sure, even when creating my own visual editing settings, what may work on one shot might look utterly terrible on another photo. So remember this before buying into presets or hoping a pre made edit will transform your image. It likely won’t because every image is so different and everyone’s shooting style varies significantly, so every image requires it’s own unique touches.

I’ve been really enjoying playing with my own editing style and gradually edging towards warmer tones & settings in the last few years. With my San Fran blog posts WIP and an upcoming trip to Morocco booked, i’m so excited to share more of my visuals with you!

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I’d love to hear about your photography journey, your editing style & the types of photos you love & feel inspired by?