Over the years my photography has grown an awful lot. Gone are the days of balancing a hair product on a bed frame and shooting with my iPhone 3GS in a dark room. Although I still don’t know the in’s and out’s of my cameras fully, I have learnt to use them in a way that suit me. This year I do hope to get to grips with my cameras properly and until then I will holding off on reviewing my Olympus Pen E-PL7 as I want to share an honest review once I understand it more myself.
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I shoot the majority of my photos on an Olympus Pen E-PL7, unless I am photographing that camera or want a better depth of field I will use my Canon 600D. For my Olympus I just use the kit lens, I am saving up for the 45mm, but the kit lens suits me just fine, I like it and it’s a great lens. If I want a lovely blurry background I will sometimes use my Canon 600D with the 50mm lens.
As for camera settings, I shoot in iAuto on the Olympus and just adapt the brightness, background blurriness, shadows on this setting. This makes things so much easier and a great alternative if you just can’t get to grips with DSLR’s exposure/ISO etc. As mentioned though, this is what I want to improve on this year, to learn to shoot in other modes and use my camera to it’s full potential.
PIN IT! PIN IT!When I edit my photos I use Photoshop and only do a few simple steps to edit them. Nothing drastic or over-edited, just to brighten things and sharpen everything up. When I first started out I used Picmonkey to edit all of my photos, it’s a free photo editing service online that’s so easy to use and a great alternative.
PIN IT!BRIGHTNESS
The first thing I do to all my photos is up the brightness. This depends on how dark my photo was to begin with, if it’s a particularly gloomy day I may need to adjust it more. Never over do it as everything will become far too overexposed and washed out. I tend to stay under 50.
PIN IT!SHADOWS
The next step I do is just add some of the shadows back in that were taken away when we upped the brightness. This just makes all the colours a little deeper, most noticeably black shades look nice and dark and how they would look in real life. Another way to change the shadows and make the colours darker is by changing the levels. You do this by clicking image > adjustments > levels and then adjusting the slider to the desired look.
PIN IT!PIN IT!SHARPEN
I sharpen all my images a tiny amount as it just makes everything more crisp and clear. If you have an image that is a little bit blurry, sometimes sharpening it makes it unnoticeable. I do this in Photoshop or sometimes I do it in Preview, if you have an Apple laptop you can edit images in preview, however I have never tried it, I just use the sharpening tool.
PIN IT! TOUCH UP
To touch up any marks, stray hairs or fluff etc I use the spot healing brush tool. I know some people don’t like things like this but I’m a clumsy fool and have marked my white card with numerous things and scratched my marble adhesive in two big noticeable marks so I like to just get rid of these for a cleaner look. It’s also handy if there’s a stray hair/dust on a product that you didn’t know was there when you were taking your photos, it just smartens the image up.
PIN IT!THE GAME CHANGING TOOL
If I have a part of an image that’s slightly darker than the rest I will use the dodge tool as this brightens any areas. It’s such a magical tool and seriously saves some of my images now. I actually discovered this tip on Pinterest and was amazed when I first tried it out. I don’t use it on every photo but on the ones that need it, it works a treat.
EXTRA STEPS
I straighten any images that may appear a bit wonky, sometimes I crop them if I feel that looks better but these steps are optional. My files are usually about 4000px, so if this is the case I resize them to about 1800-2000px. This doesn’t effect the quality of your images but it will make them load more quickly.
PIN IT!PIN IT! PIN IT!I hope this post has helped you in some shape or form, if you have any questions you can leave them below and I’ll try my best to answer them. If you’re curious as to what my blog photos used to look like I will be sharing a post soon on how they have changed over the years, it’s very cringe-worthy but I love how seeing the difference.
How do you edit your blog photos?
Zoe everett
Loved this, I do most of these steps but definitely will try out the shadow change. Thanks!
Megan
Lovely tips! I also find the shadow/highlight adjustment tool in Photoshop really helpful if even after brightening there’s just too many shadows. x
Megan | http://www.meganjean.co.uk
chelsea goslin-minter
This is such a helpful post! I’m really struggling to get my head around my Olympus Pen but I think this has (hopefully!) opened my eyes so much. Will be trying out your advice at the weekend.
Thank you!
xx
Sachie
Awesome guide – thanks for the tips!
sachie | lovelycomplex.net
Gabija
Loved this post- super helpful! I need to invest in Adobe’s Photoshop/Lightroom soon, sadly used up my trial now haha!
Gabija | everylittlethingblog.weebly.com
Fatima
Blog photography goals! Just a few simple things to up your photo game 🙂
Fatima x http://www.fatima-writes.blogspot.co.uk
Laura
Such a helpful post, thankyou! You take lovely photos! x
Laura | Blush and Bronze
Caitlin
Oooh! I have never heard of the “dodge” tool. I will have to try that next time, it sounds perfect! Thank you for sharing your tips 🙂
Caitlin
Aïchatou Bella
Thank you for sharing your secrets. Your photos look incredible!
xo,
Aïchatou Bella
http://www.stilettosandstandards.com
Ashlynn C
Your photos are so on point! I use Photoshop to edit my photos as well. I remember using this really crappy camera when I first started, and my editing was equally horrendous, it’s hilarious! We really do change little by little – it’s amazing.
Charlotte
I need to try out this dodge tool! Thats the only thing that I can’t seem to improve, and thats the dark areas of images! Great post and some really useful tips! xx
http://www.styleandsplurging.net
abigail
Thanks for sharing your tips, your photos are always A+!
Abigail Alice ?
Kiss & Make-up
Thanks for sharing! I don’t have Photoshop but I do brighten my photos and make my background cleaner and whiter.
Natalie Redman
Great post. I love using Fotor for my photo touch ups!
jenna
I love reading these types of posts! Jenna
Sally
I edit in a really similar way to you! Most of these posts contain like curves and levels but I also use brightness, the spot healer and most importantly the dodge tool a lot!!
I don’t use the shadows one though so I’m definitely going to try that 🙂
Loved this post!
Jodie
Such a fab post, I’ve never used the Dodge tool in photoshop before but I’m definitely going to give it a try, I’ve been needing something like it for so long! x
Kate
Thank you for this. I really want to up my photography game this year, so am going to get myself a photoshop trial and try out these tips. Thanks again!
Kate xx
Themakeupartistschoice.com
Ariadna
I didn’t know about the dodge tool on Photoshop, it seems so useful!! x
Ariadna || RAWR BOWS
Dee
Thank you so much for this! I love finding out tips on how to edit because I’m still learning! Haha! We have the same camera too so this post is extra handy!
Frances
Your blog photography is beautiful! I recently bought myself the EPL8 and I’m just figuring out how to use it. All of these tips were so helpful, i’m really working hard to try and improve my blog photography this year xx
Sarah
Lovely tips! I love the dodge tool as well!
Thank you for sharing! xx.
Single Vegas Girl
This is a great post! I still need to get Photoshop on my new Macbook since I previously had it on my PC. Thanks for sharing this as I hope to get a bit better with my blog photos. (:
Single Vegas Girl
http://singlevegasgirl.blogspot.com
Erin Azmir
so helpful! thank you x
http://www.erinazmir.com
Carolina
Great tips. I’m editing my photos with Phtoshop, too, but I use only Auto Tone, Brightness, Sharpen, Vibrance and rarely Shadow/Highlight.
Carrie x
Fee
I always enjoy reading how other bloggers edit their photos and so I was so glad when I spotted this post from you as you have such amazing images! So bright, sharp and beautifully styled.
Glad to see this post has got a lot of love on Bloglovin’ 🙂
Fee x
AMy
I love this post!! Editing is not my strongest skill when it comes to building blog posts and the information you’ve put here is so simple to use.
Thank you for the inspiration Claudia
Amy
Rochelle
This was really helpful! great photos, and how much did you pay for photoshop? is it a monthly payment? x
Natalie Williams
Great post ?