This post IS NOT about PP ing being real photography etc...don't even want to touch that one ;) Im just really curious to know how much PP most people really do. I think I can tell on some, but others I can't ( people are either really, really good at it, or im an idiot and can't see it) So seriously, how much PP do you really do on an image?
Extremely little. Not handy at the finer subtler points. But you might learn more by looking at the photographer's comments, photo by photo: some who are quite skilled at it are nice enough to share what they did.
The better the out of the camera shot, the less I have to do. Even with a good shot out of the camera and a basic editing challenge, I still do the basics of levels, curves, saturation, contrast cropping and sharpening.
Others take a LOT of PP to get what I want. I was actually surprised that I was able to recover this one and get what I did out of it My fill flash had washed out the lower part of the bricks, and failed to properly illuminate what I needed it for (I did shoot RAW, and that helped):
I usually do very little or batch process them in lightroom 2. Some photos such as my current FS entry required a lot of PS work. For sports though... almost ziltch, try and get it right in camera!
I've been trying to get away from heavy post-processing and focus on composition. But it's hard not to fall back on the appeal of eye candy. So I confess... My last Free Study entry was all about post-processing, as compositionally, there wasn't much there. In fact, it was in some desperation that I pulled this one out and started to play with it, as I really had nothing else to enter.
Photoshop is like makeup. You can use as much as you like as long as people don't notice you're using it. You can also use it to get a specific look (in both makeup and photoshop).
You can easily use a lot of little adjustments or none at all.
Of course, if you're ugly there's no amount of makeup to make you look good. Same works with photography and photoshot.
I've been trying to get away from heavy post-processing and focus on composition. But it's hard not to fall back on the appeal of eye candy. So I confess... My last Free Study entry was all about post-processing, as compositionally, there wasn't much there. In fact, it was in some desperation that I pulled this one out and started to play with it, as I really had nothing else to enter.
I disagree. There was a *lot* there compositionally, it just took a pile of post processing to bring it out.
How do you define quantity in PP? Is it amount of time spent? Number of steps involved? How noticeable the change is from original to final?
In most of my work I use the same 6-7 steps and i can do them really fast... So I'd say "not much", but the change in the image is noticeable...
R.
You should define "quantity" as the difference in appearance from the original to the final image regardless of the amount of time it takes to get there.
DPC is a fine art photography competition site. Most folks apply a significant amount of post processing to their submission images.
If I'm doing B&W, I do a lot of messing around with levels, tone, etc.
Color...just levels, contrast, sometimes tint...unless I'm doing portraits, which I do a heck of a lot more to, lol!
It really depends on what I want the final image for, and how I accomplished it...for example, I did quite a bit to this (had to clone out the little p&s that did the flash and do some burning on him) and a ton on this (you really wouldn't recognize it from the original.
As little as possible usually.
Depends on if you have a 'vision' for the final image. If so then you know what to do, kinda.
If not, you shoot it and then start playing - see what curves does, or a vignette,or...sometimes the result is cool and sometimes you Control Z your work.
Some folks are real artists at PP and doge and burn and this and that and wow! I prefer to get it as right as possible in the camera and keep it close to that as possible - up some saturation, sharpen, maybe B&W.
I think most of my PP is really spent fixing issues with the original capture LOL
Not much generally, usually 5 minutes at most for a basic editing shot, maybe more in advanced if I need to blend a couple of exposures but rarely more than 15 minutes
