To Photoshop or not to Photoshop, that is the question!

Sponsored Links

16 Sep 2010 - 5:56 PM

• Options

Join ePHOTOzine for free and remove these adverts.

KathyW (e2 Member)

8

16 Sep 2010 - 6:05 PM

• Options
  • Report Error / Abuse

0

Whatever you like really... Some people (often those who have spent a lifetime using velvia film or dodging and burning, or cutting and pasting in the darkroom) think any manipulation is a dastardly crime and you should always get it "right" in camera... Others will quite happily clone out anything that takes their fancy and stick another sky and a few texture layers on the pic.

The secret for wildlife and "natural" images is that no one should be able to tell if you photoshopped it or not... if you're not good at cloning, or haven't got the hang of selective blurring, don't do it...

cameracat (e2 Member)

8

16 Sep 2010 - 6:44 PM

• Options
  • Report Error / Abuse

0

I'm with Kathy on this one.....

There is nothing new about making alterations to a photograph or image, When film was the main format, Clever guys in darkrooms had the skill and techniques to do almost everything that can be done in photoshop today, I know because one such genius took the time to teach me a few tricks......

One of the simplest was cupping your hands around the enlarger lens, Then you could allow light to spill onto the paper in different areas of the photograph.....

Does that sound familiar...? Dodging and Burning analogue styleee...... Perhaps.

There where other tricks too, Some quite complex and a right pain in the proverbial, But very effective results non the less.....!!!

The methods may have changed, But the concept and practice is nothing new.

The amount you apply is purely personal, If its really good, No one will notice, If its bad you'll get a lot of squawking about manipulation from a certain sector of the community, That Kathy has alluded to already.....!!!

Here is a typical scenario, You have found a nice view, You set up for a fab landscape, The light is fantastic, You take the shot.......

You get home and look at the shot in more detail on your computer screen, AAaaarrrgghhh, Just as you pressed the shutter, Way in the distance half a dozen crows fly through the frame, To far to be of use to the scene and for all the world they look like big dust spots.....

Do you leave them there? I would not, But you might feel they add something, Its all a bit subjective really.....

Ok, So lets say you clone the crows out..... But now your wishing you had not left your " Grad Filters " at home.....

Do you leave it as it is, Because you forgot the grads....?

Or do you darken the sky a tad.... Because thats how it would have looked, If you had remembered to take your grads with you.....

You mention using a little " Colour Boost " ! Well why not, If it makes the image look more like the one in your head, Or the one as you remember it....!!!

Lets face it, Many film buffs used that weird " Velvia " film for just the same reason, To them it looked better, Though others thought differently.


If we where all the same, Produced exactly the same images, Same colours, Same everything...!!!

Life and photography would soon become very very boring indeed.

comma

4

18 Sep 2010 - 12:54 AM

• Options
  • Report Error / Abuse

0

In it's earliest incarnations photoshop was built to replicate many of the dark room techniques used by photographers and studio techniques commonly used by graphic artists. These were found to be perfectly acceptable in the non digital age, so I've never been too sure why the digital equivalent creates so many (and sometimes heated) conversations.


Quote: Though I've not uploaded an image for sometime I have always uploaded (bar 1) un-cropped un-edited photos, save a bit of sharpening and colour boosting.

What are your thoughts?


Essentially your post says that you changed the colours (through saturation) and fixed the focus in your images, it might not seem a lot but you've actually made some pretty fundamental and significant changes to your images by using software - digital processing is all or nothing and either position is perfectly acceptable. Almost all the photographers I know fall into the digital processing camp - whether they choose acknowledge it or not. It's no big deal - the end result and all that...


stuart

AngieLatham (e2 Member)

7

18 Sep 2010 - 7:49 AM

• Options
  • Report Error / Abuse

0

Is there still arguments raging about the use of Photoshop????

I find that most people who are still moaning about it are the people who either don't know how to use it or just can't use it very well and need more practice. At the end of the day you can't rescue a bad picture with photoshop (it will always look like you have rescued a bad picture useing photoshop) but you can enhance a good picture. How far you want to go in an artistic sense is surely down to personal taste and preference and as Photography is supposed to be an art form of personal expression ,and every famous photographer that ever lived was famous for having his or her own recognisable 'style' , I can't see where the problem is. Express yourself and be proud of whatever style you want to go for, be that natural or more arty. No-one else has the right to opress it.