Sunday, February 22, 2015

Trying out some new software - first impressions

I recently get a new piece of editing software and have been taking a brief look into it's features on some of my previous portrait photos.

The software in question is PortraitProStudio and it is certainly very powerful in its editing features. So much so, I've found that I am having to dial down the settings to a more subtle level, as it is very easy to push things a little too far and enter the realm of "over processed".

Once I have found a good level of editing I certainly feel this will speed up my portrait editing and allow me to quickly dial the level of editing up or down to suit the subject and look I am after.

In all I have to say this is a very interesting and powerful software package, one that is currently on sale (half price). Well worth checking out if you do a lot of portrait and beauty work.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Back to basics

After a recent knock to my self confidence I have decided I'm just going to take photographs and not attempt to control genre, type and style. In other words, I'll be going back to how my photography began and photographing whatever caught my eye.

If you are wondering what happened to knock my self confidence, I'll give a brief explanation. Up until recently I had been doing more portrait shoots so, to get a little more exposure and (maybe) lead to some paid work, I offered a couple of free portrait shoots on my Facebook page. Well, long story short, I was taken aback with the low, to non-existent response I received. I received a grand total of one inquiry and even that has not been fully arranged and shot (needing to make finalized details etc). While I know that social media (and Facebook) can be a mixed blessing, I was taken aback somewhat.

And this brings me to where I am today, trying to push this aside and to pick up my camera, to shoot anything of any style, any subject. Even if it's just photos of my dogs, it's building myself back up. I'm going to be shooting for me and if you happen to like my photographs, it'll make me smile some more than I already am.

Now it's time to blow some cobwebs off my camera, dust off the lenses and go shoot something; anything!