Friday's Photolife--editing

Wednesday's Winner: This was my first time using Random.org. It was so nice. I assigned everyone numbers according to how many points they earned, then plugged those numbers into Random and voila! Today's winner is testament to blogging, tweeting, and facebooking to get extra points and so more chances to win. Congrats to Samantha Vérant.  Email me at lacmoss (at) gmail (dot) com with your address, and I'll send the book out to you. It's actually the one that Beth is signing in Wednesday's picture.

On to the Photolife:

I love a good photo shoot. I think I've told you that the k-check of the shutter snapping calms me. I can find peace puttering around the yard, lying on the ground, or cozying up to a tree capturing little moments in time. I'm actually a bit of a purist. I like the shot I take to be the final one I'm going for. BUT. Lots of them aren't. Sometimes, to get what I want, I have to make it happen on the computer.

Here's a shot from one of our recent snow storms. You should have seen the splits I did to get it. Very acrobatic. This is the raw shot. It's really nothing special, but I had the bare bones of something to work with.

Here's a cropped and doctored version. It's natural and you may prefer it, but what I wanted was to highlight the leaf.

So... In this one, I photoshopped it in layers maximizing the color of the leaf and minimizing the color of everything else. Now the viewer's eye goes straight to the leaf. Its impact is much more powerful.

Application to Writing? I think of the photo shoot as a sort of rough drafting. It's wonderful to get things right in that first draft, but not everyone has that particular knack. I have a well known author friend who writes in such a way that his first draft is his final draft (other than minor copy edits). He insists that it keeps the writing fresh. I agree (mostly). It's like getting the framing, angle, and lighting perfect in a shot when you're taking it or being able to do minor edits to get it (like in the 2nd picture). I wish I could do it in my writing, but I'm much better at taking my raw draft and layering and tweaking to craft what I want. Some effects* (like in the last version of the photo) are only available through editing. Not everyone will like it better, but some will. It all depends on what you, as the author, want.

*An example of this in writing would be things like flashbacks or interwoven plot lines.