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To Boldly Edit or Not? that is the question


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32 replies to this topic

#1
Mark Win

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Hi guys

Ive never really been into editing my work as most of my works are news and need to be the bare image for news networks as they tend to steer clear of obvious editing, however ive recently started playing around with edits for my own portfolio with colour variations and exposure tweeks. Im just wondering how many of you actually do edit and play with your work, im only beginning to understand the benefits of this.

 



#2
morticiaskeeper

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Until about a year ago. I did very little editing. Just a bit of cropping. I still follow the idea of get it right in the camera.

But, switching to RAW gave me a new outlook on things. Years ago, we had to process our photos, mostly at the chemist or by post, sometimes a processing company like Colab, where you could talk to the darkroom staff to get the shot you wanted. Some of us did it ourselves.

Then digital came along. The whole USP of digital was speed, no longer waiting for the post.

Think of editing as processing film. I change colour and sharpness in my shots, but haven't done any masking yet, although see the results that Pelle Cass gets with his single frame timelapse technique, I can see I'll be using Gimp more in the future.

#3
Mark Win

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Im a big lover of Gimp myself, so used to it now.



#4
morticiaskeeper

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I'm not too good with Gimp, or any other packages for that matter.

Even when processing RAW in Darktable, I can't always see what needs doing, which is why I go through a workflow. When I've found something that works, I'll save it as a preset for next time.

I played about with Gimp yesterday, putting selective colour in a BW shot and had a go at single frame timelapse using a transparency eraser, but I'm completely lost on masks :-(

#5
Afterimage

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I edit, in some manner, 90% of the images I post. Be it straightening, cropping, white balance, sharpening to full multi-layer mixes with effects... almost everything gets a run through a post processing program.

 

PS CS6 is my go-to program but I also have on tap; OnOne Perfect Suite 7 (I'm beta testing 8), Corel's Paintshop Pro, Photoimpact and, now, their Aftershot Pro as well.

 

I often work photos heavily to match the "memory" I had of the shot when I took the picture.

Shots like this...

Capture.JPG

 

Become this...

after.JPG



#6
morticiaskeeper

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AI

I like what you did. Our eyes, and memories, are much better at gathering an image than any camera.

A lot of HDR exponents take it too far, almost like an oil painting.

A bit of tone mapping merely gets it closer to what our eyes see.

#7
Afterimage

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Thanks :)

 

I don't do HDRs all too often because I'm not a fan of the overall look. Sometimes it works but ... it just feels forced. Like someone found a nifty filter and cranked up all the dials. I take more of a painter's approach to some of my shots, like the one above. I'd say that was an "extreme" for me, most images don't get half that amount of processing. Most frequently I just post process in Camera Raw and clean up the image in PS.



#8
scoobymax

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i dont edit my everyday pictures too much apart from exposure and maybe white balance, sometimes the picture never looks as good on a 3inch lcd as it does on the big screen!! most of my editing I do will be for image manipulation like this........ 

Attached Thumbnails

  • TerminatorMe.jpg
  • Water hair.jpg
  • Wild Apple2.jpg
  • Wild Pinapple.jpg


#9
Guy

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I develop all my digital pictures from RAW.  There is more DR in the RAW to play with than what you get from an OOC JEPG.  What's not to like about that.  Most are processed to look natural. Some have color profiles added to perhaps compliment a mood.  And yet some have a vignette added or pull in too bright of a sky kind of thing.  In the end, it represents my personal touch to the final image be it I made it worse or better. 



#10
Thumper

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I haven't done any of that cool special effects type stuff like what scoobymax posted above, but I would love to develop my skills to that level. Most of what editing I currently do is what I used to do in the darkroom with film. Color, contrast, cropping, etc. Improving what I may have done (or failed to have done) at the camera level. It is just a trick sometimes not to over do it. If something is over edited, it no longer looks real. (Assuming that the appearance of reality is the goal).

#11
Rontography

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Nice stuff scoobymax. I don't try and get too crazy but I do try to make my kids and their friends feel like rock stars. They love it.

 

i-NPdnQgX-L.jpg



#12
Thumper

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That's cool!  Nice graphic design.

 

And I think that nicely illustrates a difference between "editing" and graphic design.   (As does the work that scoobymax posted).  



#13
scoobymax

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Tats a lovely image Rontography. :) looks great and for plenty of punch!

#14
Tony892

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Interesting thoughts out there. But I would argue that there are different genre of photographs, as in the bare image news story mentioned by Mark in the intro, to the artistic examples shown above. I was recently drawn back to photography after seeing some HDR shots of scenic shots that were in my mind almost like oil paintings and pure art. I am a mere novice, but have noticed that in some camps there is almost a puritan approach that if you do anything to the image after taking it, you are cheating or something like that.

#15
Rontography

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have noticed that in some camps there is almost a puritan approach that if you do anything to the image after taking it, you are cheating or something like that.

 

 

Those people can bite me. To me it's more about creating a piece of art with a machine. What difference does it make if that machine is a camera, a computer or both? I think the only time it's wrong is if you alter it to something different and claim it as fact. A liar is a liar and just wrong.

 

 

In full disclosure: In my image above the cheerleaders left arm is also her right. Somebody was in front of her right arm so I had to replace the whole thing. It was a routine surgery.



#16
K-9

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In full disclosure: In my image above the cheerleaders left arm is also her right. Somebody was in front of her right arm so I had to replace the whole thing. It was a routine surgery.

 

Wow, I wouldn't even know how to do that.



#17
Thumper

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Interesting thoughts out there. But I would argue that there are different genre of photographs, as in the bare image news story mentioned by Mark in the intro, to the artistic examples shown above. I was recently drawn back to photography after seeing some HDR shots of scenic shots that were in my mind almost like oil paintings and pure art. I am a mere novice, but have noticed that in some camps there is almost a puritan approach that if you do anything to the image after taking it, you are cheating or something like that.

 

 

Those people can bite me. To me it's more about creating a piece of art with a machine. What difference does it make if that machine is a camera, a computer or both? I think the only time it's wrong is if you alter it to something different and claim it as fact. A liar is a liar and just wrong.

 

 

In full disclosure: In my image above the cheerleaders left arm is also her right. Somebody was in front of her right arm so I had to replace the whole thing. It was a routine surgery.

 

Agreed on both posts.  



#18
Rontography

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Wow, I wouldn't even know how to do that.



It's really not that difficult. You should learn it. Very rewarding and fun at the same time.

#19
Thumper

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It's really not that difficult. You should learn it. Very rewarding and fun at the same time.

It is just capture selection (with the lasso tool) then invert selection, correct?



#20
Rontography

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It is just capture selection (with the lasso tool) then invert selection, correct?

 

Pretty much. I always turn any selection into a new layer. I selected all of her with the lasso tool, bad arm included. Turned that selection into a new layer and erased the right arm. Then I selected (with lasso) the left arm and turned a copy of that into a new layer. Flip it, place it, do a little blend and good enough.