WHAT A LONG ABSENCE!
It's really hard to keep up with social networking nowadays. It used to be just Friendster. Then, along came Myspace. Okay, not so bad about having two social media profiles.
Now, there's a plethora of platforms where you can express (or expose) yourself according to your liking and interests. I only have Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and hardly on Twitter anymore - even that's tiring enough and naturally, my blog has taken the backseat since I was more active on my Instagram and Youtube.
No Snapchat for me, thanks.
Blogging used to be fun, at least for me. It used to be the place for me to gag over something I liked, share silly things I experienced or rant over...everything. Then, I had to tame down my blogging ever since I found out friends and family members read my (silly) blog.
But thanks to technology, today, everyone is too occupied with Facebook, Instagram and other easier social media outlet. Our attention span is short so we're always on the lookout for quick entertainment or instant news outlet. Now, nobody has the time to read blogs - and I love it!
I can go back to being the old me and share anything I find interesting here!
So... as my first blog post in many, many months, I'd like to share about the joy of Photoshopping.
Please bear in mind, I'm no professional in the deceitful art of Photoshopping. I first learned about Photoshop from my school mate and best friend, Andrew, when we were 14 or 15. There we were, in a small, shabby cyber cafe in Taiping, in front of a white, boxy PC with Andrew teaching me how to liquify, spot healing, clone stamp and other Photoshop wonders.
Throughout the years, I picked up a thing or two about Photoshop tricks through YouTube and applied it on my personal photos. I could spend hours and hours, painstakingly editing my photos to make them look better, in my eyes at least.
However, I'm not into editing my own anatomy or facial features. I thought it was tacky to do so since everyone knew how I looked like in real life. Instead, I just enjoy removing unnecessary objects in my photos and making them look more presentable.
Here's an example of the picture I uploaded on my Instagram earlier today:
And here's a side-by-side comparison with the original photo I took by myself, using an auto-timer on my Nikon D5200.
And here's a side-by-side comparison with the original photo I took by myself, using an auto-timer on my Nikon D5200.
I wanted the focus to be on the gorgeous but bland Alexander Wang sweatshirt so I edited out all the furnitures in the background. I liked the shadow on the white wall so I retained it. That one shoe lace falling out drove me nuts so I had to erase it, same goes with the three stripes on my Adidas shorts.
The sweatshirt looked bigger in the picture so I decided to shrink it just a little around my left shoulder. I left my shining, glossy face on and did nothing to my head a little tuning on my hair. Just to even out the pompadour.
Finally, I adjusted its brightness and contrast to give it a cooler look. Not bad, no?
So, there it is. That's how I have fun with Photoshop. Not so much about making myself look better but to make the picture look aesthetically-pleasing and to deliver the right message about my picture.
Got any Photoshop tips and tricks you wanna share with me? :)
juicyword@gmail.com
Instagram: @kby87
Instagram: @kby87
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