Editing in Picasa

I've never really done much before in the way of photo editing until this year. Now I spend way too much time playing around with my photos in Picasa, trying to improve them or somehow make up for the inadequacies of the camera & photographer. But as I get more familiar with the different effects that can be applied & how they affect the look of the shot, it's easier to determine rather quickly the type of effect I want to apply & to what degree. Here's the low down on some of the basic effects in Picasa.

Lomo-ish: gives it a boost of color & provides the vignette halo. I don't use this one much. I'd rather just use the Boost & Vignette together, & have more control of each element.

Vignette: This shot is unedited, with the exception of the vignette, which is the fading dark frame around the perimeter of the shot. I use vignette all the time, probably too much. Sometimes when I'm getting pictures of Keira's outfits to send to the family members who gifted them, I try not to use anything but perhaps Vignette, as to not alter the colors of the clothing.

Boost: just boosts the color. I do use it frequently, again, probably too much, but usually only a smidge. 

P.S. this is more than a smidge!

Orton-ish: I think of this effect as being a neverland effect. It softens & darkens & boosts, & just makes garden flowers seem Eden-ish!

HDR-ish: aka high definition resolution-ish? It's harsh, & creates a blue halo around objects, but it's good to brighten up a shot that's too dark or sharpen up a shot that's a little out of focus.

Cross Process: reminds me of most of the Instagram pics I see. It also makes me think of nostalic photographs. I think this is an older type of processing. When I use it, I fade the effect usually, because it just washes out too many details. There's another effect that's similar, called Cinemascope, that I actually use more often.

1960's: makes me think of all our family photos from my childhood, as they totally look like they were done with this effect. Probably not so much in this actual sunflower shot though, as I faded it out a bit. I use this effect mostly for those shots that I want to warm up a bit, especially when the flash white washes everything. I hate flash, but sometimes it's the only way I can force my camera to get the shot.

Well, there you have it. There are more, of course. A recent, brightly colored shot of Ellie, our sunflower, was done with the Heat Map effect. I use the others so infrequently though. These are the effects I most often play with. It's fun to layer them sometimes & see what I can come up with! And by the way, these are all shots of Ellie, in her prime! (& in the morning sun! Yay!)