Dodge 'n Burn

I recently signed up for a mini class in digital photography, hoping to learn a bit more about it and make more use of the camera and photoshop. Yea, it shouldn't say that. But these days you probably don't come across the 'originals' that often anymore. And I guess it's okay to make use of technology. That's what they invented it for anyway :) So we talked about light and color today, and went through some assignment pictures. One of the key takeaways was, if you have to, it is better to have underexposure than overexposure. In other words, too dark is actually better than overly bright, because even when it appears dark and shadowed, the information captured is still there. Once we got to photoshop and tried different ways of adjustments, I realized you can really fix that and it was kinda cool..

So think of the toolbar on the left-hand side in photoshop with all those little icons, and there's one called dodge tool. Again this is like revealing my illiteracy, but honestly I never really knew how to use it. So we tried with this indoor photo, and because there was a hanging light in the middle the ceiling background was just dark. Using this thing can brighten part of the photo you want, and voila the ceiling emerged (it was nicely decorated). And vice versa, the burn tool does the opposite (but i guess it wouldn't be as neat)..

I guess what i'll do from now is not to ignore the photos that seem useless. Now I know I might be able to uncover many things underneath. You never know what you'll see.. Somehow I just relate this to first impressions with people, cuz a lot of times it doesn't say much about them at all. Over time you'll learn more, and hopefully find out who they are.. and then you might go wow like when i saw the ceiling :) Of course, despite time, it's not always the case that you'll be able to understand.. You can't crack the code with the wrong method.. it's like using photoshop with photos taken with non-digital cameras ngai.. :P