The Stone Chariot Temple, Hampi

Hampi is one of the most fascinating places that I have traveled so far.
This is the famous stone chariot temple at the Vitthala Temple.

The Thousand Pillar Temple, at Moodabidri near Mangalore

Post-processing mishaps – things to avoid when starting with post-processing

I have been reading-up a lot on post-processing lately. But, I am yet to come across an article which would have helped me when I was just starting...just starting with Picasa. 
Back then I made some horrible editing mistakes ( I still do!), which converted my perfectly good pictures to nightmares ( I, of-course, didn't realize it back then!)

So here is an attempt to bridge the gap :)

It was not long ago, when I was first introduced to post-processing...

Right after my first trip with my DSLR, I was showing (- off) my pictures to my colleagues at work. One of my colleagues was the owner of a DSLR (a better one!), so (of-course) he was wiser ;).
He took my images and opened them in Picasa. Suddenly my pictures transformed. They became brighter, stronger. I could crop, straighten, saturate, could convert them to black and white, sepia. It was like a magic tool to me.

Suddenly I thought I could start selling my photographs :D .I could not have been more wrong! 

Here are few tips, to help you ‘learn from my (or any beginner’s) mistakes’:

•  While we all love bright colors, don’t over-saturate.

         This is one of the most-common mistakes. I have committed it for long.

         It is really easy to get carried away – when grass becomes greener,

         sky bluer, red- redder J and somehow the face always yellower!

•  Keep colors natural, Don’t go overboard with the shadows treatment

      The image below hurts my eye, I went overboard with saturation
      and  shadows. The yellows were getting yellower , the blacks...blacker; 
      I just couldn't stop myself.

I realized my mistake. So I went back and reprocessed, I prefer this one to the previous one. The image is not very bright and has a vintage look.

•      Do not use focal B&W on Picassa

        I am yet to come across a good usage example of focal B&W. 
        If you really want to use partial coloring, use photoshop or some 
        other advanced photo-editing software

•   And most importantly Do not delete the originals

      ALWAYS keep the originals. I have lost quite a few excellent
      photographs, because I kept only the edited pictures. As you learn 
      and graduate as a photographer, your eye for post-processing      

      betters. And believe me; you would want to reprocess your images.

-          Lastly, learn more of post-processing. Ask any great photographer; and she will tell you that post-processing has become as essential an art as clicking. Be curious, learn more. In this era of Digital Darkroom there are no limits!