Sally Hansen - Lady Luck
I put this on the other night after having done my nails twice during the day (after swatching in the morning), and it was one of those days where everything just goes wrong. My first polish that day got tipwear and dents from my crazy dog and the second had bubbles galore, so finally I resorted to my "go to" favorite: glitter! So it saved my night as far as nails go.
Now is probably a good time to address my stance on the "photo editing" subject as well. I DO edit my photos:
First of all, I adjust saturation and white balance because let's face it, I'm not the best photographer and I don't have expensive/extensive equipment. I use a regular Canon SD1000 that I got for my birthday years ago and it works pretty well, but not perfectly. I also use natural light, so it's always changing and my camera's white balance can't always keep up.
Secondly, I retouch photos to get rid of lint, hang nails, random polish or glitter bits and other unsightly little things. But this is usually pretty minor and for the most part, my nails look just about exactly like the photos show. I won't take out important things like bubbles if the polish has a bad formula, but I'll take out dents and such if it was my own doing and not due to a problem with the polish.
Thirdly, I recently tried using Photoshop and have been able to better "color correct" pictures to how the polish appears in person. The reasoning is this: I'm interested in portraying what the ACTUAL polish looks like, NOT how it photographs. I will only color correct to make it as close as humanly possible to what it really looks like in real life. I will NOT enhance a photograph to make the polish look lighter/darker/more vibrant (or in any other way "better" or "worse") than it does on my fingers. For instance, my camera will not pick up purples well at all. However, I will edit the photo to bring the purple to a more authentic shade and hue that better represents the polish itself.
Overall, my position is this: I am never trying to make a polish look "better" in any way. I only edit as much as necessary to show it as accurately and truly as I possibly can.
How do you feel about photo editing? It is inappropriate or necessary?
I absolutely love this one from the Gem Crush line!!! My next fav is Bling Bling!! Beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteWhat color is Bling Bling? My favorite is Big Money (the gold and lavender one that I posted about for New Years)! But they are all very pretty... I even bought the pink one even though it's not usually my kind of color :o)
DeleteI'm with you on the editing. I think it's important to get the colour as close to real life colour as we can. Blogging isn't about being the best photographer with the best equipment, it's about showing off our polishes and a little colour correction sometimes goes a long way. Colour displays vary from monitor to monitor, so I've started checking my photos using my iPhone. The retina display tends to give me the most accurate depiction of what my shots look like.
ReplyDeleteI need to be more diligent about shopping out hangnails too - I'm pretty lazy with that!
Awesome colour, by the way. Sally really nailed it on these Gems.
Agreed, I love a lot of the Gems line (even if they are dupes for other polishes... these are sometimes cheaper and easier to get)!
DeleteI absolutely love the colour!! It's looking fantastic.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't care if people photoshop or not as long as people don't make the polish look different than it actually does.
This is lovely - it sort of reminds me of Studio M's Slamming Red. My stance? I like it. I crop, lighten and sometimes sharpen my images, but I've never shopped lint, hangnails or leftover polish. It's a case of what you see is what you get with my photos. My camera hates red and purple so I adjust lighting settings before taking photos...and then hope for the best!
ReplyDeleteAll I can say about this polish is WOW! That is simply gorgeous. As far as editing, thanks for letting us know how you do it. It is best to be upfront. I don't have very much time to edit my photos and my camera really doesn't like some greens and purples. I am always sure to comment on if the color is different than in real life.
ReplyDeleteYes, I've always commented if the camera didn't capture the color correctly ("it's less blue in person" is a common one, lol), but I'm super excited now that I've tried Photoshop and learned enough to be able to truly color correct the polish so that my readers don't have to guess at what it's supposed to look like.
DeleteLady Luck is amazing - woow.
ReplyDeleteAnd editing is necessary, I agree, even though I at time find the purples and the teals really tricky to correct, those I by far prefer to shoot outdoors.
I can't ever get teals or purples to come out by color correcting the whole picture (without making my skin look horribly pink or yellow), so I'm not able to "spot correct" it to just change the polish's color. It's pretty cool and I feel like I can get super accurate.
Delete*I'm now able...
DeleteOK, I'm signing in for a private lesson LOL - OR I should learn to use this facility myself ;)
DeleteHaha, I actually don't know how to do much at all in Photoshop yet, but am going to get some "private lessons" from a friend soon. The only downside is how much Photoshop costs ($100 for the basic photo-editing, non-professional software). I'm on the 30-day trial now to see if it's worth it to buy it... I'm already thinking that it is.
DeleteI have it - but shame on me, I mostly use ACDSee, I love the facilities in sorting, moving etc.etc.
DeleteWow! This glitter is gorgeous and it looks so juicy! I love the multi-coloured hex in between the pink :)
ReplyDeleteWhoa, this nail polish is beautiful (landing on my wishlist)
ReplyDeleteAnd I do the same with photos, it's only logical!
I have no problem with photoshopping! It's necessary for the reasons you mentioned. What makes me NUTS is when people photograph their polishes before they've dried, especially glitters. They never mention this and so when I first got into polish I thought everyone was getting this amazing deep glassy finish with just "seche"...
ReplyDeleteAnyway I just recently found your blog and I love it!
Oh yes one more question - how do you get such a shallow depth of field with your focus? Like when your nails are perfectly in focus but the bottle isn't.
Thanks!!
Oh, I know what you mean. Sometimes my glitter pictures are more "glossy" because I only wait an hour or so to take them, and the "grit" comes back over the course of about a day. But I usually try to find a completely smooth "final product" (which usually involves two coats of Gelous and Seche Vite alternating... in other words a lot of top coat, lol). Hmmm, now that I think about it, I don't usually comment on how much topcoat it DOES take. I should remember to do so :o)
DeleteAs far as the shallow field of focus... I wish I could help but I honestly have no idea. It must be built in to my camera's macro setting.
i have been seeing these everytime i go into cvs but have been worried i wont like them so thanks so much for the swatch. i love it
ReplyDeleteThis one is so gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteEditing is necessary. Especially when I see what my pictures looked like before. My photo's look kinda dull. I always take photo's with flash, because during the day I'm at work. Also I don't have natural sunlight in my room. I try to make it as color accurate as I can :)
This is a beautiful polish!
ReplyDelete