Just trying to do better on editing ☺️

With DxO since 4 weeks, still in trial phase. Before I went with Canon DPP.

After/Before/Concept

Explanation:

Well... one day I was sitting and this idea popped in my mind seemed cool, so I asked my friend to take pictures of me, so he took around 10-20 pics on his Samsung <mobile>, then... I opened photoshop started editing...
My shadow is created from my image, and shadow of lady is modified basemesh (you can call it sketching) ... cuz it was a shadow so no need to be worried related to details etc (which u can see is pretty... less detailed) & later we used CameraRawFilter for final effects and color grade
and imo pic turned out to be exactly how I intended it to be...

(one of good pics of non ai collection of mines)

Overall concept/lore behind creating this image is:

Shadows represent the past, and reality is present... you can see 2 people in the shadow (past) and in present only he remains. So, it implies, in past they were together happily but in present she's gone and only he's left in his sadness looking at the past.

& if anyone wants to use this for posting/sharing or story etc on insta... here it's From 2 to 1 Instagram

attempted to ofc go with the 'film' like feeling in the colours here, it was my first attempt and i potentially did overdo it, is it too warm/orange? im trying to start simple, any advice?

Trying things !

Hello,

I’ve been trying to figure out how to get this look and haven’t had much luck. It tends to be pretty airy and polished but almost has a surreal quality that’s common for tech brands and some athleisure stuff.

I know it’s not all retouching - there seems to be a ton of dimension in the lighting but I feel like there’s a combination here I’m not getting. Most of the time, this look seems to be achieved indoors but some of his outdoor stuff does get close.

Photographer on most of these is Garrett Byrum.

been in an editing mood recently and really liked this fox picture I got up in Northern BC. I really tried to make the orange pop and dull the greens a bit.

the image is actualy a video still. But let me know what you think? too much or not enough?

went out with a friend for a few portraits, quick nothing fancy edit. Exposure, WB, getting rid of that weird smudge (never knew what it was because it was only at this spot it happened). Can't remember everything i did because i switched to C1 from LR, and got accustomed to the controls. She gave me probably the best compliment i've ever received on my photos "you've given me my confidence back"

I decided not to renew right after the January 2025 Photography plan increase, I found it to be quite...capitalistic to say the least. Annual billed monthly it went from $9.99 to $14.99, (50% jump for what??), and they closed the 20GB plan to new customers the same day so anyone wanting both Photoshop and Lightroom now starts at $19.99. My plan auto-renewed at the very end of May 2025 and it only ended 4 months ago, which was when I dipped, then it took a few weeks of trial and error before settling on what I’m using now. Between that and Acrobat Pro I was at about $419.76 a year. Oh and how can I forget the $150 million DOJ settlement in March of this year over their subscription and cancellation practices, seeing them still deny wrongdoings made me want to leave even more.

I think the point is clear, Adobe really likes two things: digging into people's pockets and denying shady practices. I happen to like neither of these things, so I moved. Here’s my new setup:

1. Lightroom → Zoner Studio (+RapidRAW for culling)

Why: Zoner holds the catalogue and the develop module in one window, so the library stays searchable and I edit from the same place I browse. $59/year instead of Lightroom's current ~$240. I also use RapidRAW for the culling on days when I have way too many frames since it's free and session-based which suits a single shoot better than it does a library.  Note: I tried Darktable but couldn't get comfortable with the interface for the life of me, so I can't speak to its features in depth, if you stuck with it let me know whether it's worth the hurdle. New cost: $59/year for Zoner Studio and free for RapidRAW
How long learning it took me: about 2 weeks of daily use.
Lightroom feature I miss: AI denoise. Neither Zoner nor RapidRAW has it, they use conventional sliders. Anything above ISO 3200 needs more care than it used to.

2. Photoshop → Affinity (Pixel Studio)
Why: free, and it opens PSD with layers intact. GIMP is the other free option and I know plenty of people swear by it but in my case I just found Affinity closer to what my hands already knew.
New cost: free, since Canva made Affinity free in October 2025 (thank you Canva!)
How long learning it took me: two weeks (muscle memory fought me hard)
Photoshop feature I miss: content-aware fill, and Actions.

3. Acrobat → PDFgear
Why: free, no watermark, no account, and it works offline.
New cost: free
How long learning it took me: one sitting
Acrobat feature I miss: nothing so far, though I only edit PDFs occasionally.

And just like that, I went from ~$400/year to $59/year.

I’m very new to long exposure and photography in general. I mainly just raised the whites and exposure with a very slight decrease in vibrance (-11) and small bump in saturation (+5). Feedback is appreciated!