secrets of a photographer...

a picture can be very deceiving. 

since i have started doing photography as a job, i have realized that a lot of times it is the not the talent of the photographer using the camera.

it is the talent of the photographer using photoshop!

i am always interested in seeing before and afters. i mean...who isn't, right?

that's the funnest part of extreme home makeover, or the biggest loser, or any of those shows.

i like to see the before picture, then the finished product.

i thought i would take you into my world of editing.

i have to be honest.

this is a little scary to do.

but just to show you the kind of girl i am, i thought an open, honest post with before and afters would be a little fun.

the other day, the boys were outside riding their bikes.

because i NEVER take as many pictures of my own family as i should, i ran inside, grabbed my camera and took one shot of each boy. 

i don't think i even stopped to look at the settings on my camera. 

this is what i got when i uploaded them to my computer.

yikes...this is really revealing my poor photography skills!

these are sooc (straight out of camera) shots.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...now after your initial thought of

"ghetto much? who has a cooler outside between trees, and does this girl OWN a rake?"

you can see that these are pretty blah, boring pictures with several distracting items all over the place.

so. i open them with photoshop, and this is what you can get with a little work...

so there you have it.

a beautiful fall bike ride...no cooler.

hope you enjoyed this segment of rachelle's honest and ugly post.

now the next time you get discouraged from seeing other people's professional-looking photos. 

know that it most likely didn't start out looking any different from what you have in your very own camera!

and feel free to email me any picture that you want doctored :)