Big Secret?

[katerinab]

I'm rather new to all this photography stuff and won't even dare to pretend I know much about what I'm doing.:blushing:
For now I'm just enjoying a bit of point and shoot and having fun with different editing options on-line.

What's got me stumped though is a technique found here: photo blog | Ashley Jean: pretty dragonfly..
and here: Cotton-Hearted: Birthday

I am desperate to know how to get this soft, dreamy, overexposed look to my photos but no one and I mean NO ONE is willing to let me in on their secret.
Is it some kind of coveted technique that must never be shared or are people just being plain rude?

Please if anyone out there can help me I would be eternally grateful as the mystery of it all is freakin killing me!

By the way all I'm using in terms of editing right now is picnik and although I have adobe lightroom 3 I haven't really played around with it much as it seems a little overwhelming...

Any suggestions at all would be welcome
Thanks - Kat

 

[EchoingWhisper]

Cross processing.

 

[Kerbouchard]

For the dragonfly, turn sharpening and contrast way down. Turn saturation down also.

For the garden, use a really crappy lens that suffers from lens flare, don't use a lens hood, and compose your shot with a very bright source of light in your shot. If you don't have a crappy enough lens, you can select random parts of the photo and then lower contrast.

Honestly, those aren't photos I would want to emulate. The secret is, there is no secret. The people who created them probably couldn't tell you why they turned out like they did. They look like begininner mistakes to me.

 

[KmH]

What editing software are you using?

 

[joealcantar]

What editing software are you using?

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Yep, we gotta know what you use so we can give you an idea of some steps to achieve the look if we have the software.
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Photographers are the nicest people, shoot well, Joe

 

[katerinab]

Thanks for the advice guys - seriously I'm so amateur it hurts.
I'm using basic editing systems but recently I installed Adobe Lightroom 3 to my Mac but it's been too daunting to play with so far.
I'm not looking at photography in a profitable sense, it's purely a hobby so I suppose that's why I'm more about being all arty farty rather than taking crisp clear shots with correct lighting, composition etc...
Thank you for your time though - looks like i have a lot to learn and a long road ahead :/

 

[Railphotog]

The secret is to start playing with your software and discover what it can do!

 

[480sparky]

The secret is to start playing with your software and discover what it can do!

And remember: NEVER edit an original file..... ALWAYS play around with a duplicate.

 

[KmH]

I installed Adobe Lightroom 3 to my Mac but it's been too daunting to play with so far.

Open Lightroom 3. Select the "Develope" module. Across the top click on Help > Lightroom help and it will take you to Photoshop Lightroom Help and Support

Other instruction help:

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)

Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)

Lightroom's Develope module uses the same Adobe Camera Raw 6 (ACR) as it's edit rendering engine, that CS5 Camera Raw uses, so the following book is also very useful:
Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS5