Giving Images Their Soul

Light is the most crucial element of a picture. It gives images their soul. Light can greatly impact an image’s tone or mood, so if a picture’s soul can be saved by adding a little “spark” in post, then do it (Marcolina 132). So how exactly do you add light in post? Adding light can mean adding or accentuating a sunburst or lens flare, or even stimulating an old camera defect, such as adding a light leak along the edge of an image.

After reading about the different techniques of adding light, I decided to try it out on this picture:

Unedited

I shot this on a road trip a while back, and I didn’t think much of it when I took it. Snapping a photo in the backseat of a moving car, I was really surprised by the image quality and resolution. It didn’t turn out nearly as blurry as I thought it would. As Marcolina said, “Trust your instincts when you get the urge to take a picture; don’t always ask yourself the reason for doing it” (134). I’m glad I took this picture because it has become one of my favorites, especially after editing. 

Edited!

Not much was done in the alteration of this image. All I did was fix the little bit of misalignment and add lens flare with the PicsArt app. I added the lens flare with restraints so it looks sort of natural and does not come across as cheesy. You can see this effect in the upper middle of this picture.

What are some other situations in which you can add light (in editing of course)?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.