Travel Photos: Before and After

Justin and I have had some great adventures the past couple of years. We've been quite a few places and really seen some awesome sights. Our pictures have always been pretty good, maybe not award winning, but pretty good. Lately, I've been playing around with Photoshop and I am still amazed with the things you can do. You can really make the subject come to life with just a little (or a lot of) tweaking. Here are a few of my favorite before and after photos:

The Rocky River Bed

This picture was actually taken on the way to Lake Tahoe. We stopped on the side of the road, hopped out and took some photos of the river and the beautiful scenery. I felt like this photo could have been in an ad for Bass Pro Shops. It was that picturesque. I really liked this photo to start with but as you can see in the next photo, it only got better.

This photo appears to be out of some storybook. Welcome to the enchanted forest. The green in the trees and bushes just comes to life. I especially love the way the water is more transparent and you can see the rocky river bed.

The House

This house was near the old city in Cartagena, Columbia. First of all, I wouldn't mind living in this house. That balcony on the top? Awesome with the little gazebo/cabana thing. I love the beautiful flowers (they were bougainvillea, one of my favorites). And the house itself really just has a old world charm to it with the cracking stucco, not to mention it sits almost directly on the ocean. As with all of these photos, what it really needed was a punch of color.

In this transformation, I really played up the yellow of the house. I like how it gives it a bigger contrast between the house and the sky. It really just feels brighter and sharper. I like it.

The Beach

This one's for my beach loving sister. This particular beach is in Aruba. I don't know who doesn't have photos like this from the beach. You know how it goes, the beach is beautiful, with all that blue, and you can help but snap a photo. And then you get home and you have a ton of these pictures like this. While pretty, they can get a bit boring.

I wanted to see if I could do anything to make it more interesting, and I think I succeeded. It definitely has a more wow factor to it. The water is very vibrant and inviting. I'd go there!

The Church

Cartagena, as I said in a previous post, was very much like a European city. It had some gorgeous architecture, and I was especially crazy about the churches. This particular church was beautiful, unfortunately my picture was not. It looked washed out and the light in the upper left hand corner was much, much too bright. As it is, it's pretty much an unusable picture.

But, after a little Photoshop tlc, I was much more pleased with the photograph. The light is still really bright, but it reminds me of a light from Heaven. The stone on the walls of the church is just so vivid and detailed. I'm still not happy with the glare from the camera in the middle of the photo, but I'm really not sure what to do about it. All in all, my main purpose in editing this picture was to see just what I was able to do with a completely terrible original picture. I'm happy.

The River

This photo was actually taken at the same roadside stop that the first photo was taken at. Once again, perfect for Bass Pro or some sort of fishing campaign. Can you just see someone casting a reel into that water? It's a nice picture, but pretty forgettable.

Here's take #2. I have two things I really love about this photo. 1. The water. I think it is a great dark blue color and I love the shine it has to it. 2. The shadows. I love the way the edges are slightly darker than the rest of the photo. It seems to create a sense of mystery and it's a great contrast between the brightness of the water.

Lake Tahoe

Our final photo (for the day, at least) comes from Lake Tahoe. After all of those roadside stops we finally made it there! I actually have two after shots for this photo.

This first one is a pretty straightforward touch up. It makes the colors more dramatic and enriching, but overall there's not much difference.

This one is much different. You may need to click on it to make it larger so you can see the detail. I redid it in the watercolor style on Photoshop. You can definitely tell if you check out the trees. I really like the color of this one. Justin says it reminds him of something from the 70's. He was impressed with my skills!

I hope you enjoyed going back through a few of my favorite travel pictures. Every time Justin leaves the house I hop on his computer to play around with Photoshop, so hopefully I'll have another set in the near future.