Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

September 19, 2007

As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m pretty into photography, and I absolutely LOVE editing photos. I started messing around with photoshop about a year or two ago and now that I know the power of what it can do, I never look at a magazine cover the same. Just look at the before of today’s self portrait.

I don’t normally edit my photos quite so much. I mean, I always play around with the color. I just don’t usually bother to edit out the bags from under my eyes, or my freckles and wrinkles. This time I was just trying out a new tutorial (here it is, if you’re interested).

After having started to use photoshop on my pictures, my perspective is now totally warped. Even snapshots that I take at parties with friends on my little point and shoot camera now go through photoshop just to adjust for exposure and contrast. I can’t handle looking at reality anymore, I have to change it all to comply with my standard of beauty. And sometimes I’m not sure which image is telling the truth. In this case, the first image on the page is obviously lying. But say, for instance, that you’re on a beach watching a beautiful sunset. You grab your camera, take a few shots…and when you get home and see those same pictures on your computer, you say, “It was so much prettier in person, the pictures don’t do it justice.” How many times have we heard people say that? With photoshop, you can usually get back the vibrancy of color that your eyes saw in real life, but that your camera couldn’t transfer onto the image. Which is real? Is it the image straight out of the camera that doesn’t fit with what our eyes thought they saw? Or is it the photoshopped image that doesn’t fit with the “reality” that our camera captured.

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12 Comments

I covet Photoshop!P.S. I'm 28, going on 29 in February. Thanks for making me feel young again! (Pepe and I met when I studied here at age 19)

Comment by Sarita — September 19, 2007 @ 4:47 pm

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Hey Sarita, when is your birthday? Mine is Feb. 21st!

Comment by mamacita chilena — September 19, 2007 @ 5:00 pm

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You have gorgeous eyes! Thanks for the link and the B/A.

Comment by Amanda — September 19, 2007 @ 7:59 pm

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What a difference! I have Photshop Elements II and never really got the gist of it. I would love to learn more since I know how dramatically you can alter a shot. BTW, you are so talented that it stuns me!

Comment by alphawoman — September 19, 2007 @ 9:13 pm

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I love photoshop!! I to find myself running my point and shot photos through photoshop! What a wonderful photo.

Comment by Tiffany — September 19, 2007 @ 10:57 pm

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i think your answer is: the image out of the camera doesn't fit what our eyes saw. you were gorgeous before AND after.

Comment by feistyMNgirl — September 19, 2007 @ 11:33 pm

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Kyle, I’m not sure how to do a link but this is a post I wrote about Chilean kids a couple of years ago…

http://achiletale.blogspot.com/2005/12/note-to-parents.html

Hmmmm.

Comment by Raybelles — September 20, 2007 @ 5:55 am

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Both.

The camera often does not capture the full detail of being there in person. And I think people always look different in person because of the way they move. That isn’t captured in still pictures unless it’s through a series of photos.

I think both photos hold truth and a little bit of a lie.

Comment by ordinarygirl — September 20, 2007 @ 9:09 am

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Thanks for the link to the tutorial. I just started playing around with photoshop again after not touching it for a few years. I just put CS3 on my machine and already it does so many things with a click of a button we had to do by hand even on photoshop 7.0. You have gorgeous eyes btw!

Comment by Scale Junkie — September 20, 2007 @ 9:32 am

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Right before I got LASIK I thought to myself “I should take a picture with my glasses off so I can remember how blurry my vision was.” And then I of course realized I was an idiot because how exactly was I going to take a picture with my brain? So I just have to remember how blurry my vision was, or take a look through my old glasses which now give me a headache.

Comment by PastaQueen — September 20, 2007 @ 10:45 am

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What a great blog. I've been reading your stories and can certainly identify with your comments about Chile and Chileans: the culture, the food, blonds, racism, staring, gringos and English..the lot of it. I lived there for six months in 93'-94'. I went through many of the same experiences you did, when you started out. By now, I imagine you are an expert..I never stayed long enough to make it beyond the freak stage. I did, however, learn and maintain Spanish (doh..sorry Castellano to Chileans) and never forgot my experiences or relationships. I write about my ties with Chile every now and then in case you wanna check it!http://the14423.blogspot.com/search?q=chile(entries about Chile)Again, great job and very very entertaining.

Comment by Matt and Aimee — September 21, 2007 @ 12:45 am

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Amazed by your mad skills. And totally jealous. (PS you are beautiful in both pics). Honestly, wish I had any clue how to use photoshop though.

Comment by clare — September 23, 2007 @ 1:39 pm

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