There are many paths to a photo, some of which may rankle the ‘purist’ photographer in us. Early on, I was very much a purist in that I wanted to minimize the amount of post-processing. However, with the arrival of HDR processing, I expanded my range of experimentation and found it interesting to see how I could express more of a vision in my photography, rather than a representation of what I saw through the lens.
HDR can be very tricky and create some very cool results. Sometimes, I like to take a simpler approach…
This was a rather dreary day with sleet coming down lightly; the pale blue of the canoe stood out in the otherwise muted landscape.
The colors in the photo were already fairly muted, but not enough to get the mood that I wanted to communicate in this image. A simple desaturation of the image and some additional saturation of the blue color of the canoe created the sense of dying color in a winter landscape that I wanted to achieve.
What types of processing do you like to do in your images?
I do like selective colour. I also use a bit of vignette to enhance a spot in a photo. Quite often I may reduce the light, add a bit of black to make the subject stand out a bit more or use added highlights to give that bit of added energy to a photo.
There you go……..all my secrets are out lol
I like that approach.
Thank you Frank. It is good to be able to explain what makes a photo for us. A lot of the time it is what I see is what you get, no post processing
Nice post!
Thank you!
I am very much the same way; at least right now. I do like to increase some of the colors though, as it shows more of what I am really seeing.
It’s nice to have the tools to bring out our vision of what is presented through the lens.
Striking blue against the backdrop of whiteness. I am unfamiliar with what there is to offer for free in terms of photoshop since I am just a wanabe photographer.
Thank you very much! The Photoshop package that I subscribe to is the Photographer option, which is $19.99 per month and includes Photoshop and Lightroom (another great tool) for 2 simultaneous devices. It’s an option that is definitely worth the value.
Great results from your editing. Love the blue! Personally, I donât do much editing but it is not because I am a purist. I just havenât taken the time to get into photoshop much. It is definitely on my list of things to learn.
Thank you, Irene! It’s a lot of fun to explore and express your vision in images. By and large, I do very minimal adjustments as part of my standard workflow. (I’ll write a post about that at some point).
This is a beautiful photo, Frank. <3
Thank you kindly, Penny!
I love the way you made the blue stand out and the image tells a real story. I rarely adjust the colours but I love to slightly blur an image to create a softer feel or a sense of movement đ
A slight blur can give an almost supernatural feeling
A very lovely picture, Frank. I started out a purist too, but have found I like selective colours, sepia and B&W too. I almost always have to put on some light or take it down. Reduce the shadows a bit too. I have the same programs as you – but Lightroom came along very late, last year in fact. Now I love it.
Thank you for this post. Interesting to hear others on the subject.
Thank you for sharing your approach; getting the mood right in an image is something that can really enhance it.
Yes, and the mood can be tricky to get right. And by “right” I mean the feeling I first had. Sometimes the final picture shows a completely different feeling…and that is the joy too of playing with the tools!
I can relate to that; there’s one image that I held of on processing for about 6 weeks until I was in an appropriately dark mood. It worked đ
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I like what you have done here very much. I do not do a lot. I sharpen and pull the shadows , whites, blacks ,highlights and add clarity sometimes dehaze and sometimes luminance. I am always photographing horses, usually in competition so there is not so much leeway for editing with an artistic alteration. But you have inspired me and I’m going to play around with something and see what I come up with . Just for myself. Thanks,
Iâm looking forward to seeing what youâre going to create!
Early on, I was very much a purist in that I wanted to minimize the amount of post-processing.
I was as well. Perhaps it’s just par for the course of learning in photography. Among some of the Fuji X camera photographers, there is a belief that all images must usable straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) and that JPEG is all that one needs. Somehow, they’ve got it in their heads that real photographers “get it right” in the camera and post-processing (except for the processing the camera does to create the JPEG) is for amateurs. I wonder if they know anything about Ansel Adams?
So very true! Ansel Adams is one of the more famous photo post processors.
And he post processed ALL of his images. He didnât have Photoshop, he had the dark room and âdodgeâ and âburnâ techniques.
I was a painter for many years and I greatly enjoy the post-processing play with photographs. Wherever my imagination goes I try to follow. I wish I had the time to explore photoshop more, hopefully someday.
Thank you! Itâs fun to follow oneâs imagination. Hopefully you will get the chance soon!
Thanks
Very pretty! But I agree with you on the other photo đ
I prefer the new, lighter touch treatment over what I did before. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.