Phase One

One of my favorite blogs to read, Young House Love, had a post up about doing Phase One changes on their new house.  Someone wondered wasn't it a waste of time and money to do little remodeling changes when they could just be saving up for the big redo.

I think about things like this a lot - not just in reference to my house, but also my work.  When I post Works In Progress, it might take a long while before you get to see the end product.  They're like my Phase One projects.  I like them, I can live with them and sometimes they don't need a lot of changes after that.  But I don't know that when I set out to create it.   For some photos it takes me a bit of just living with it and seeing what changes I'd like to make to bump it up.

Think of Works in Progress as a Phase One for my photos.  The changes I make at the outset in Lightroom help build a foundation on which I can make more interesting texture, light, saturation or hue changes.  I use Lightroom to open my photos, so nearly all of my beginning changes take place in there.  Sometimes I do make other adjustments in Photoshop, but it's usually all Lightroom.

Times is a great way to see if the changes you make hold up.  I don't like to open my photos right away after taking them, but give them a day or two.  When I open them, I have some distance from taking them, and can enjoy them again.  I edit as many as I can in a day with Phase One edits,  and take a few into Photoshop for further adjustments.  But some I just wait on and see what inspiration time can being to the next step.

Here's a new finished fall photo that I took about two weeks ago. The colors are brilliant - just what I love about fall.