Challenge: How I Edit My Pictures

I got this challenge from Sonia at Tyttö ilman helmikorvakorua, thanks for sending it to me!

Here are the rules of the challenge:
1. Thank the person who gave you the challenge!
2. Have an unedited and an edited version of the same photo in the post.
3. Write about what you usually do when editing photos. What software do you use?
4. Give the challenge to five bloggers!

I went a bit overboard and included many pictures from the Make-up Store Look post I did earlier.

Original

Edited. Cropped, auto contrast, auto color and the horrible stubble is touched up a bit.

For editing I use Picasa by Google. It's a light program that lets you organize and edit pictures. It has only basic tools, but they are very well selected and programmed. I also have Photoshop, but I find Picasa is so well optimized for photo editing I hardly ever open Photoshop just to fix photos.

I have a Nikon D80 with a macro lens I use to take pictures. I usually take my make-up close-ups inside, standing next to a window to catch as much natural light as possible. The pictures still sometimes come out a bit dark.

Original

Edited. Cropped, auto contrast, auto color, touch-ups on the stubble on brows.

Normally when I open a photo for editing, I first crop it, then use auto contrast, then try auto colour (sometimes I like the original colours better and stick to them). I finish with cleaning the picture up by using the Retouch tool if there's something like fallen eyeshadow on cheeks, pieces of mascara, stray cat hair or I happen to be having a bad skin day and have a zit or two ;P Picasa's retouch tool is very intelligent and cleverly matches the background so it's easy to fix small areas.

Original

Edited. Cropped, auto contrast.

Original

Edited. Auto contrast, some small retouches on the redness on my nose bridge left by glasses,
a pimple next to my nose and another one on my temple. Dark undereyes are faded a bit.
This editing takes about five minutes with Picasa.

I can definitely recommend Picasa to anyone editing photos! Photoshop is great for doing larger tasks and graphic design, but I feel the limited tool selection of Picasa also helps to not go overboard with editing. Picasa also automatically saves the original picture (for some reason as a hidden file, so if you are looking for the originals, turn on showing hidden files on your computer) so if you make a mistake, you can't have accidentally saved over the original.

Then on to challenging other people to do this!

1. Sandy at Arsenic and Old Lace
2. Duvessa at One of Beauty's Daughters
3. MothMouth at Through the Looking Glass
4. Lynoire at Milking the Rolling Cow
5. Chastel at Wandering the Borderlands

Good luck!