Using plugin filters can help you turn average photographs into works of art. You do not have to spend a small fortune on plugins for image editors. Often you can find outstanding ones for very low cost, or even free. Just chatting with other photographers in groups and forums, you are likely to find quality resources.
David Elliott of top-pics.co.uk told me about the Virtual Photographer plugin for Adobe Photoshop. What many people do not realize is that most Photoshop plugins can be used in many imaging applications, including Paint Shop Pro. Simply install the plugin into the plugins directory of your particular program.
Even though I already have plugins coming out my ears, after reading the reviews, I decided to try this one out for myself. I was pleased with the basic filter effects I was able to create just playing with the plugin for one evening.
Deep Cherry Red Filter Effect
When you try new plugins, you really need to be willing to experiment. Although default settings will give you excellent results, the most outstanding results happen when you take time to create your own.
I highly recommend trying out the Virtual Photographer plugin by optikVerve Labs. Make sure you also download the extra settings too. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you the best part! The price for this plugin couldn’t possibly be any better. It is free!
Sometimes no matter what I do, I just don’t end up with the shot that I saw in my mind when I was taking the picture. Today, I was standing on the side of the road trying to get a quick photo of an old barn.
There was an icy cold wind, the natural light was just about gone, and I was too cold and cranky to spend the time getting the shot.
Salvaging Bad Photographs
Of course, I was more than disappointed with the result above, but that doesn’t mean I automatically delete these types of pictures.
If the quality of the image is good enough, I am very likely to open Corel’s Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 and experiment. More often than not, I end up salvaging bad photographs into something useable.
Lighten and Clarify
This is the exact same photograph as above, but I decided to lighten and over clarify the image to give it a more dramatic effect. You may also noticed that I have cropped and straightened the photo.
Lighten, Clarify, and Sepia Toning
Again, this is still the exact same picture as above, but I added sepia toning to the final image for an almost spooky effect, ending up with a photograph that I truly like.
When All Else Fails . . .
When all else fails, I just go back to shooting photographs of my daughter and I know everything will turn out just fine!
Displaying photos on the internet is similar to how you might display them when decorating in your own home. Usually, we don’t just tack photographs up on the wall.
We like to frame them and make them stand out from the wall a bit. When we are displaying photographs on our websites though, the frames we find in image editing programs tend to distract from the photos, rather than making them stand out.
Simply framing the picture with a soft shadow can solve this issue. This technique allows the focus to remain on the photograph itself, while still standing out from the page.
This very professional photograph (below) does not render as well on the web as it does in print, and it ends up losing something on the pages of a website.
By adding a very small amount of clarification to the image, along with a gentle shadow we can once again make this photograph almost pop off the page.
Adding these tiny details to photos displayed on your website, can make a huge difference in the overall visual appeal of your site. Sometimes those tiny deatails add up to increasing your sales!