Bring Your Best Fix and We Look at It Together
Okay. Last time we talked about the fancy stuff I don't do, layers and masks and AI cleanup, and how this class stops well short of that on purpose.
Today's different. Today you bring me your worst photo. The one you've been meaning to fix for months and haven't. The blue-picture one, the too-dark one, the one where your kid's face is in shadow and the background is blown out. We're going to fix it together, right here, out loud.
This is the last hands-on lesson before we wrap up, so I want it to actually be useful to you, not to me. I've got example photos if you need one, but honestly, I'd rather you fix your actual photo. That's the whole point of this class. Taking pictures and never touching them again is like buying lumber and never cutting it.
How today works
Everybody opens their photo app with a real photo loaded, one you picked ahead of time or one you find in the next two minutes. Doesn't matter if it's good or bad. Actually, bad is better for today. We learn more from a mess than from something that's already fine.
Then we go around. You show me (or the group, if you're comfortable) what's wrong with it in your own words. Not "it needs editing," but specific. Too dark. Colors look off. There's a trash can in the corner nobody asked for. That's the muscle we've been building all along, naming the actual problem instead of just feeling like something's wrong.
Then we fix it, one step at a time, the way we've done all along:
- Crop first. Cut the junk off the edges before you touch anything else. I say this every single lesson because it's the edit people skip and it's the one that does the most work for free.
- One exposure or brightness adjustment. Look at it. Close the app if you have to. Come back with fresh eyes.
- White balance if it's got that blue-picture problem. You know the one.
- A little contrast, a little saturation, if it needs it. Probably less than you think it needs. Most photos need less editing than people give them. That's not a rule, that's just what I've seen over and over, including in my own stuff.
- Stop. That's the step everybody forgets is a step.
The part where I admit something
I keep a spreadsheet. Started it to track who's borrowed which tool out of the garage, because I got tired of not remembering if Jeffrey has the good level or if it's still at my place. At some point I added a second tab, just called "photos people want fixed."
Anthony's daughter's wedding pictures have been on that tab for, I want to say, eight months now. He asked me back in the spring if I could clean up a batch from the reception, the lighting in the hall was rough, and I said sure, no problem. They're still sitting there. I open the spreadsheet sometimes and see his name and feel genuinely bad about it.
I mention this because I want you to know that finishing the edit is its own skill, separate from knowing how to edit. I can walk you through every step today and still not have actually done Anthony's photos. Knowing how and doing it are different muscles. If you leave here today with one photo actually fixed, actually done, you're already ahead of where I am on that tab.
A caution, since we're working live
If you're editing on your phone in a room full of people passing devices around, keep track of your own phone. Nothing against anybody here, it's just the kind of thing that walks off in a room where everyone's got a phone in their hand and attention is elsewhere. Set it down where you can see it.
Also, if you're working from an old family photo like the one I scanned a while back, and it's the only copy, don't edit the original file. Duplicate it first. I've said this before and I'll say it again because I only learned it the hard way myself.
What we're watching for
As we go around the room, I'm going to point out when I think you've done enough. That's honestly the harder skill than making the edit in the first place. Anybody can crank a slider. Knowing when to let go of it and move on, that's the thing that took me the longest to learn, and I still catch myself overdoing it sometimes if I'm not paying attention.
If your photo comes out looking like you meant to take it, we're done. That's the bar. Not perfect, not magazine-quality. Just, somebody meant to take this.
Before next time
Bring one more photo you'd actually like to see finished, something with a person in it if you've got one, since we haven't done many of those together yet. No pressure to have it perfect. We'll do the same thing again, and it'll go faster the second time. 😊