maybe better if left alone - learning to use lightroom

Although I like editing, I am not always good at knowing when to hold back.  I really enjoy working in Lightroom, and exploring all the little tricks and tweaks to make your photos pop.  Sometimes I can get carried away...

Here is one of my first ever self-portraits, unedited.  Initially, I thought very little needed to be done.

Here's my edited version.  I cropped in a little, softened the skin on my arm, sharpened the image and played with the shadows at my back to emphasize the light coming in on the right.

I think I should have held back a little.  The vignetting feels too dark and heavy.

Here's the same edits, but without vignette.  Hmm.  Too flat?

I think I like this one the best, but I'm not sure.  Perhaps I should sleep on it and look again tomorrow.

UPDATE:  I went back and looked and decided to keep the dark vignette.  Sometimes it's good to sleep on it, sometimes it's good to trust your gut and just go all the way...

learning

self-portrait with cat

 Here is what I've been working on today in Lightroom.  I literally know next to nothing about the program, but have watched a few tutorials on YouTube, read through a few workflows and tried my hand.

unexpected visitor

I set up a tripod in my workroom with granny pink walls and used window light to capture these images, along with a little imagination, to try and create a painterly look.  It was loads of fun.

I officially can't put my camera down.

light in unexpected places

Today I watched a CreativeLive workshop with Brooke Shaden.  She's incredibly inspiring and is offering participants a glimpse of into her world behind the camera as a visual story teller, instilling the gifts of creative license and freedom of expression above all else.

For months, my creative soul has felt cracked and dry as the desert, devoid of inspiration and flow.  But today it rained.  It poured.  My notepad is full of ideas, adjectives, stories.  With camera in my hands, I am full of new potential.

I photographed clouds.

I threw out the should's and doubts and excuses and reconnected with my inner beast - an animal of impulse, aroused from too long of a slumber.  She's hungry.