A Funny Thing Happened In Photoshop - Editing Photos - San Gabriel Mission & Ventura 10/28/13

I've been learning more about editing photos in Photoshop Elements 11 (the version I have) lately.  I didn't really know if I was making my photos better, per se, but I did learn how to do some fun effects, use different filters, and generally work more in expert mode.  

Well, now I kind of have a way to see if what I'm doing really makes for a better photo.  

I had some photos from October 2013 which have probably the best sunset photos I've ever taken and, to be honest, some of the best I've ever seen.  I was amazed at what God created and at what was coming across on my camera viewer. 

Then I lost them. 

The photo where they should have been?  Was empty.  I had long since deleted the photos from my camera.  I had no idea what I had done with them.  I vaguely remembered editing (or not editing, in the case of the sunset photos) them, but who knows where I saved them.

As previously mentioned, I've been trying to clean up and organize my photos.  Lo and behold, I found them in some obscurely named folder that had absolutely nothing to do anything.  haha  But they weren't edited - they were just raw *scratches head*.

So a couple days ago, I edited and relocated them so I could do another "Flashback" post.  Today, going through more folders, I found the ones I had edited previously!  Who knows what the hell I was doing.  lol

So I'm going to post them here...in groups for comparison.  Some of them were not edited originally or included in the folder where I found them. The Grill Em All photos are all from the recent edit.    

First Stop:  Grill Em All burger restaurant - Alhambra, CA

I may or may not have previously mentioned that I love food trucks.  If you do too, this name might be familiar to you...especially if you watched the first season of The Food Network's Great Food Truck Race.  Grill Em All was the winning truck and used their $50k winnings to open this restaurant.  

To be honest, I don't remember the names of what we ate; I think the first photo is The Behemoth. The second picture doesn't resemble anything on the menu really.   

But I do remember that it was pretty damn good.  Especially the truffle fries.  I would give it 4 out of 5 stars (I really should do a belated Yelp review, but they are doing well in that area). 

And this was dessert.  I don't think they have this one anymore.  It doesn't fit the one dessert on their website.

It's located in a nice little area.  I guess you might call it a strip mall, but it's a bit higher end with a lovely courtyard. 

The next day, I was set to drive back to Sacramento.  But first, I decided to stop at the San Gabriel Mission.  Let the double edits begin.

Obviously that's a much higher contrast on the 2nd photo.  Not sure it's better...I like them both. :/

Definitely love the 2nd edit on this one.  I learned how to adjust the lighting to bring out the rings in the sun rays.  I think that looks cool. 

I see pros and cons for each photo.

Same with that one.  I definitely am much better at the contrast and lighting in the second edit.  But I did a much better job with the blurring/depth of field effects. I think I like the first one a bit better.

This pic of the cactus garden and mission walls was not part of my first set of edits.  The original was really dark and I didn't trust/know as much about lightening shadows.  I like this photo.

First edit, I used the tilt shift feature.  2nd, I used the lomo effect.  I think I like the one with tilt shift better.  But I wish it was more easily controlled.  It's very restrictive. 

Here are a couple more that I apparently couldn't get to work in my first edit attempt. 

Now Leaving the San Gabriel Mission.  Next stop:  Unknown beach near Ventura

Love this gorgeous bridge.  

I like the cropping of the first because you can see the sand, but the color in the 2nd is better.  

And now, for our last stop, we move further up the coast to another unknown beach where I saw that amazing sunset. 

This is the unedited original.  Probably resized, but that's it. 

For the second edit, I changed the lighting (but not the color...the darkening of the colors was achieved solely through lighting) because I wanted to have more definition around the sun, and especially bring the sunbeams out. 

I didn't have this photo in my original edits.  Probably because it's very similar to the first.  

Okay, is it just me?  The shape of the clouds around the sun TOTALLY look like the bat signal, a bat, or even a phoenix!  
Just me?  Okay then...  

I'll probably edit this with more observations after I view the post on my large screens at work. 

EDIT:  After viewing the photos on a larger screen, I can see the value of editing the light for a more dramatic photo.  I think both edits were pretty good, but I do seem to prefer photos with more definition and color.  

Personal preference I suppose.  :-)

xoxo