Getting the most out of summer snapshots

The perfect summer snapshot

Among all these snapshots, however, there is usually a picture that you’re particularly proud of. For example, because the light falls beautifully, the colours are particularly well coordinated or the moment was simply the most beautiful. Why not create something extraordinary out of this picture? In the form of a new wall decoration for your living room for example!

This time I'll show you how to get the most out of your snapshot before ordering. I usually work with Adobe Lightroom for this purpose but there are now enough free image editing programs, such as GIMP, that are available to everyone.

Alternatively, you can use ifolor Designer for minor adjustments such as automatic image enhancement or great black-and-white effects.

Exposure

If your image is too bright or too dark, you can use the exposure to adjust a lot of things. My tip, however, is to compensate for depth/light and white/black first before you play around with the exposure too much! If, for example, only certain parts of the photo are too dark, it is advisable to pull up the depths and black a bit first, because the exposure brightens or darkens the whole picture all at once.

The dark areas are now much brighter and more details are visible.

The same applies, by the way, to areas that are too bright!

Contrast & saturation

Many people jump directly to the saturation to make the colours appear stronger and more vibrant. The dynamic controller is much more important. While the saturation increases all colours evenly, the dynamics only changes the saturationof all weakly saturated colours without having a big effect on the already more saturated colours.

The change using dynamics looks much more subtle, doesn't it?

Correctly adjusted contrast is important for the optional effect of your image. A photo with a slight contrast appears much finer and softer, while a high contrast makes the photo appear harder and more differentiated. Play around with it to get a feel for it.

Temperature

The be-all and end-all in photography is also the white balance. But why exactly? Isn't white always white?
Just as the brightness can vary, the colour temperature can also vary. The photo may appear too yellowish or too artificially cool at the end depending on the lighting conditions. Many photographers set it manually when taking pictures but most cameras do this automatically now. Often the end result is satisfactory but itis recommended that you adjust the colour temperature if your image is too warm or too cold.

The beach already looks much warmer and more summery!

Colour mixer

Only individual colours can be changed more easily using the colour mixer. Sometimes the water or sky looks bright blue in real life, while the colours in the photo appear much paler. Or one colour seems too dominant in relation to the rest. It's easy to fix this – see for yourself!

The mountain range looks much more orange than before, while the green is no longer as dominant.

Do not forget to crop!

Once you are satisfied with the end result, your summer snapshot is ready to decorate your living room as a new wall decoration.

I opted for the HD Metal Print for my summer snapshot. The metal plate is printedin high resolution and can be easily mounted using the supplied wall bracket. Be impressed by the unique effect the picture has!