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I personally use photo shop to edit my pictures, but I try not to Photo-rape them. there are only about two pictures that have been heavily photoshoped, and that was because that was the assignment. (special effects)


I know people have opinions about photoshoping images, so I would like to hear them. (see them...? eek )

I always strive to make my edits as non-noticeable as possible. A tweak to the levels and exposure then maybe a crop or whatever. I'm not above editing out flaws on a person's face or merging a couple shots to get the image I want though. See if you can spot what fixes I made before you read what I did ^_^

For example:

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i76/phoenixliv/WinterMarshSunriseHDR.jpg


This shot was taken as 2. One with the sky exposed very well and one with the foreground and I merged them with the HDR function in Photoshop.






http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i76/phoenixliv/sereneafternoon.jpg


This one I added color to the sky because it was plain and white and BORING ^_^






and this one
http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i76/phoenixliv/snoqualmie1.jpg


well it was totally white in the sky so I imported another photo for that and also, the waterfall was burnt out so I had another shot from the same day where I only shot the waterfall and the whitecaps looked great in it so I layered it in. I think I also straightened my horizon!

I found the Monochrome setting on my camera, so I can take them in black and white, but then i dont have the option of having the shot in color, so i usually shoot in both monochrome and color. . . mostly because the only place i have access to photoshop anymore is on my boyfriend's desktop.

i find that converting them in photoshop makes for a somewhat decreased image quality. thats why i like to use the monochrome setting. (:

My little rant on people that think photoshop is bad....

Digital photography is digital therefore you need a computer to process it. Film photography is chemical therefore you need chemicals to process it. There is no such thing as "Not editing my photos is sooo old school" because people usually do and always have done minor edits to their photos. If a film photographer never edited their photos then the film roll would be sitting there all rolled up never to be seen. With digital, if anything post production is more important. I say this because with film, you of course have the choice of film, you can pick a film to give something like the result you want. Where as with digital you are stuck with one sensor which will consistently take 'flat' images. A small boost in contrast, saturation and some sharpening is just about mandatory. Digital has some problems as far as being aesthetically pleasing because it's captured in a linear manner. Post processing needs to be applied, and to limit yourself to the few creative settings on your camera because it's "purist" and you're avoiding photoshop is just pure ignorance.
Photography has been an art form that is technically driven, more so than other forms like painting, drawing, etc. It's in our heritage to evolve and adopt new, more powerful, and more flexible tools.

Photoshop is really important for so many reasons...

First of all, you can really help bring a photo to life with even just a quick little retouch like I did oh kokihi's photo. It's nothing big but if you compare the photo's it's a pretty big difference.

Most of my retouching is just by using the dodge and burn tools which I use to get rid of most blemishes. I stay away from the clone, patch, or healing tools as much as possible. It definitely takes longer, if I'm going through an imagine, just a simple headshot and I'm fixing blemishes I can easily spend up to an hour just doing that - depending on detail.

So it's pretty time consuming but I like the end result better, it's a much cleaner and natural looking image, you don't have overly smoothed out areas or weird and odd gradations. Especially if you're using the patch tool. But it depends on the image.. if it's a lower quality image or not a tight face shot, no one will know anyways and it doesn't matter so I can just grab the healing brush and be done in a few minutes.



Plus I think people don't really realize how important photoshop actually is and how much it is actually used. Trust me, most people see AND LIKE what photoshop does almost on a day to day or week to week basis. When you start doing more professional photos you're going to almost HAVE to use it. At least if you're planning on oh I don't know.. Having photos that you'll want to sell or something. Because for whatever simple reason it might be... Maybe you're shooting a landscape with a camera without a lot of dynamic range and so you need to make an hdr, you can do that in photoshop (Sure there's other programs as well but hey, I'm making a point here). If you're doing portraits you're almost always going to have to do some sort of retouching on them. Unless you want them looking like crap. Whether it's clearing blemishes, adjusting colors, or just fixing someones hair.

Speaking about portraits, pretty much any cover photo you see on a magazine has been crazily retouched. I'm talking about like, a cover for maxim, vogue, gq, etc. not like some insider paparazzi bs. But they'll seriously go through and make sure every little detail, every strand of hair is perfect.. because obviously that's the first thing people see and it has to be perfect. Why? To sell. It's all about money obviously. If you throw on a crappy portrait it's probably not going to sell that well, dontcha think?

I'm not saying you have to throw in some rainbow flying elephants battling it out with space invaders using flying monkeys wielding nunchucks in the background of a photo. But it's there to help make your photo look it's best and make your client or whoever look and feel their best and that's what's important.

You know for the most part if there's something you want, a certain look you're going for.. chances are you can do it in photoshop. It's just like the darkroom... If you're in the darkroom dodging and burning areas of the photo, if you're cross processing in the darkroom, once again you can do that too. There really is very little difference from photoshop to the darkroom, you can use the same techniques (In a way), the same methods to help you achieve a look you're going for and you know, that's to make your photo better, to help it look its best so you can take it out and show people and sell or whatever.

TOTALLY AGREE!

It's annoying to see people who put down editing, when the photos they are inspired by are most likely edited to some extent, small as it may be.