Something exciting, guys! I’m working with Adobe as one of their brand ambassadors for their Photoshop Elements Program. If you’re not familiar with Photoshop Elements, it’s a powerful but easy-to-use, editing tool for the any photographer. The best part is that it’s totally affordable and really user friendly! As an ambassador I’ll be sharing a couple posts the next few months on photo editing and other photo projects with Photoshop Elements. Photography and photo editing is a huge part of my work, and Adobe is the gold standard in photo editing, so I’m feeling really honored to be working with them!
Today I’m headed to the Adobe headquarters to learn all about the software from the developers themselves (So exciting! I can’t wait to geek out!). There are lots of fun things planned the next couple of days with Adobe, and you can follow along with me on twitter or instagram (@liz_stan). But I wanted to first talk about my background in photography, and one of my favorite tabletop photography tools.
I don’t have a lot of photography training besides a couple dark room classes in grad school, a tabletop class with Nicoles classes, and a patient husband who has a background in photography. I was in school for counseling psychology but interested in some creative fields as well, and ending up using some stray credits to take a couple dark room classes. It was all film, but I still learned a lot about proper exposure and understanding light. I loved it! (PS if you’re wanting to learn about exposure this is an awesome book).
We bought a Canon 30D and 50mm f1.4 lens (which I highly recommend. It’s still my favorite). About 4 years ago, blogging starting getting busier and I began clocking a lot of time behind the camera. Without realizing it, I was spending part of every day taking photos. I learned a ton more about shadows, styling, and composition. PS For someone starting out, I’d recommend buying a cheaper body (like a Canon Rebel) and then spending money on a good lens like the 50 mm 1.4. The lenses that come with the body are usually pretty crappy.
The images above is a setup I use for a lot for DIY tutorials I do. This window is one of our only south facing (I usually like south facing the best), but the sun can be really direct in the afternoon, which is good and bad. Lots of light, but also lots of shadows. I actually prefer cloudy days to shoot, but sometimes you don’t have a choice!
To filter the harsh light coming in I have a sheer curtain, but this reflector works wonders for balancing out shadows too. It was a Christmas gift and I’ve loved it! Above is an example of what is looks with the reflector and without. The shadows look so much softer in the top image, don’t you think? It’s not a huge difference, but it does help a lot.
I’m absolutely not a photography or photo editing expert, but I’m excited to learn more about Photoshop Elements and share some of the knowledge with you all over the next few months!