Effects

I try not to be too heavy-handed with effects, because I often like the photo and composition to speak for itself. However, sometimes a good effect can really make me love a photo. These were all done in Lightroom.

The first one, I didn't take. My sister, Cori, took it. It was in the bride's mom's living room. It was fall and the objects on that window sill area are ceramic pumpkins and other harvest-y type decor. Using this effect with it's high contrast, helped pull the focus away from the knick-knacks and back where it should be...on the bride and her gorgeous dress! This one, I did several different color variations, but I think this was my favorite. I like the color pop, but don't think it takes away from the couple. I like the color accent to really be an accent that adds to the photo, not just a gimmick.
The selenium tone if this photo probably is a gimmick in this case. The photo itself was nice, but not something that would really catch my attention. I thought the blue added an interesting "feel" to the photo. And have I mentioned that blue is my favorite color?
This is probably my favorite effect. It's called "direct positive" in lightroom, and in some photos I think it just looks amazing and really makes the photo pop! When it works (and a lot of the time it's a horrible horrible choice), I feel like the photo could have been found in a magazine, and that makes me really giddy!