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6.27.2013

Create Beautiful Photos / Adobe Lightroom 5 Review

Photography isn't exactly my niche, never has been never will be. I prefer pen and paper to communicate. But soon after I fell in love with blogging, I realized that good quality images are vastly important to the success of a blog. They aid in telling your story --drawing your readers in and helping them feel a connection with you, the one behind the blog. 

But for someone like me, who still has yet to master the many functions of my DSLR, I can get frustrated by the poor quality of my photos. That's where editing takes place. I'm not going to get that perfect shot every time, but with the aid of a software program such as Adobe Lightroom 5, I can alter my photos, and take them to the next step, by giving them a more clear, polished, and professional look before hitting publish in Blogger.
Adobe Lightroom 5 has a variety of photo enhancing functions. Some of my favorite include skin softening, teeth whitening, and iris enhancement --all of which I used on the photo below of Steven. But sometimes, all a photo really needs is an adjustment in the clarity and exposure like the photo of the flowers above. 
Below is another photo that I edited pretty heavy handedly so you could easily see the difference. My pores were made smaller with the skin softener, my eyes brighter, and I obviously lightened the photo. I was even able to create more noise in the background so that the grass behind me takes on a blurry effect. (And yes, I am using Huckleberry as a headrest in case you were wondering. He makes a good pillow.)
At the end of the day, Lightroom 5 enables me to share better quality photos --captivating my readers and creating more beautiful memories for Steven and I to grasp on to. There is a bit of a learning curve, and I think at first Lightroom 5 can seem very intimidating for a new user, but there are plenty of helpful tutorials online. Or, you can be like me and find a friend who has the program and threaten her to teach you all her tricks! Okay, maybe leave the threats out.


Full Disclosure: Product was provided to me by Staples, but all views and opinions expressed are my own.

6 comments:

Cara said...

I loveeeeee Lightroom. Such a great program. I think it is better than photoshop for just editing.

Callie {FirstComesLove} said...

I think I neeeeeed that! I'm thinking of getting a DSLR. Advice where to start searching?

Anonymous said...

i really need a photo editing software and a new camera. but they are so expensive! (and so not going to happen anytime soon.)

Chelsea @ Lost in Travels said...

i'm glad to know it's as good as people say! we're using aperture, pixelmator and also some lightroom (ok to be honest, my husband does all of our editing!) for me, i also just prefer pen and paper!

Micael said...

Sweet post today!

Sarah Alway said...

Oh wow, that really makes a difference! I get super frustrated about the quality of my blog photos, but I can't afford to do anything about it right now... like buy a nice camera, new computer and photo editing software. So for now my trusty iPhone will have to do. Someday!

Sarah @ Life As Always