My Photography

I've had several questions asked about my photography...what camera, what software, etc. Here's a quick rundown (don't be surprised if I'm much simpler than you thought).

Camera - Canon Digital Rebel Xt

Software - I actually primarily use a freebie, el cheapo software that came with my HP printer called HP Photosmart Edit. It can do basically about a dozen things. I'm still trying to figure out Photoshop, but it may be over my head.

Editing - It all depends on the photo. I learned a long time ago that most of the work of a good photo is done before you open the shutter, which means, editing can usually only make a photo look a little better (lots of people make their photos look a lot worse, IMHO). If you're using the same software I use (although most other software has the same basic editing options), I often:

> Increase the contrast a tiny bit to get rid of that gray haze that is typical in most photos.
> Bump or decrease the color saturation. I bump it to give it a little more pop and use this when a photo has a bright colors that I want to accentuate. I decrease it to give it an almost B/W look with a slight hint of color, especially when there is only one color present in the photo.
> Add a soft glow filter/special effect to give it that very soft, warm look. I use this a lot for three different reasons. 1) With my photos of my daughter to increase the gentle feel that most baby pictures already have, 2) With my photos of my wife and I to increase that romantic glow, 3) With close-ups of faces to decrease skin blemishes, harsh contrast, etc.
> No matter how well I frame a photo, I almost always crop, at least, just a little. A great tip I learned a long time ago with framing and cropping...play around with NOT centering your photos...you'll find it can often make them a lot more interesting, especially if you're playing around with you DOF.

Hope that answers some questions and maybe helps you out a bit. As always, I photograph for fun, and I edit my pics the way I like to see them. You may find my tips don't work for you, which is totally cool. The key is to be happy with your own work.

Nate