I hear/read it all the time: photographers are taking shortcuts or just flubbing the exposure and/or lighting all together, and then they are fixing it up lickity-split in Photoshop. I need to learn these tricks, because even after studying Photoshop and photography for years I find it almost impossible to turn a poorly taken photo into a good finished photo.
I would like to see examples of poor photographs (as they come out of the camera) turned into good photographs with image processing software. I'm not talking removing a zit or adding a catchlight. I want to see sows' ears turned into silk purses! It doesn't have to be your work; feel free to post links (please consider PT forum rules on posting copyrighted photos) to examples of other photog's work that demonstrate fixing it in Photoshop.
Here's one of my favorites: Ansel Adams' most popular (I believe that means best selling) photograph "Moonrise". Although since the photo was made in 1941, it was "fixed" in the darkroom (no pun intended). Scroll halfway down the page at the link below to see an example of a contact print of the neg and Adams' finished print.
Photoshop will not turn a poor photograph into a good one, it will turn a good photograph into a better one, remember it is best to do most of the work in camera.
www.dcimages.org.uk
"A good photograph is one that communicate a fact, touches the heart, leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective." - Irving Penn
Great example of how pictures have been created even with film, not sure about the idea of making a bad picture a good one " lickity-split in Photoshop ", I sure can't do it.....
You will not be judged as a photographer by the pictures you take, but by the pictures you show.
When the last candle has been blown out
and the last glass of champagne has been drunk
All that you are left with are the memories and the images-David Cooke.
I saw you mention this Matt in an earlier thread, so you got me looking into this more today. I think too that you can only do so much with a bad photo, but by that I mean one that's out of focus, has blur from camera movement, etc. etc.
This image seems somewhat different from that as Ansel saw something there, enough to cause him to pull over the car and start grabbing equipment etc. This may not exactly be one of his best negatives and took a lot of work to get this photo, but in this case it involves a good bit of artistic interpretation I think ( such as the exceptionally darkened sky). And it was a matter of doing what you can with what you have to work with, or not getting the shot at all. He supposedly considered bracketing, but there wasn't time as the sun was going down, and even making a second shot wasn't an option since by the time he finished the first exposure was done, he'd lost the light.
I have one particular photo that happened once when I was out of town. I'd been shooting indoors low light with 400 speed film and on my way to the car saw some industrial type buildings next door that I stopped to photograph. I was on the last roll of film with nowhere in sight to buy more, so being out in bright sun I closed the lens down all the way, set the camera at the fastest shutter speed and used up the last of the roll. There wouldn't have been a chance to go back so it was use what I had or nothing at all.
I had one particular shot of a brick building that due to the conditions was so dense I could hardly see the image, but I knew what was in that negative; so I zapped light thru it and burned the heck out of it til I got the photo I knew was there. But if the photo had been too out of focus or the negative was way too thin etc. I probably wouldn't have been able to do anything with it. As it turns out it was good enough to get accepted and displayed in a local art exhibit this fall.
So maybe it depends on if there's some potential in an image that it's worth the time and effort and editing, or if it's a badly done photo that with a lot of processing ends up being an image where you notice the editing more than the image itself.
It's no ansel adams or van gogh, but I completely saved the shot from disaster and made it presentable.
BEFORE
AFTER.
When the last candle has been blown out
and the last glass of champagne has been drunk
All that you are left with are the memories and the images-David Cooke.
Correct. Doing rays by hand takes a lot of patience.
Thank you btw.
When the last candle has been blown out
and the last glass of champagne has been drunk
All that you are left with are the memories and the images-David Cooke.
It's no ansel adams or van gogh, but I completely saved the shot from disaster and made it presentable.
BEFORE
AFTER.
Great example of what a talent photographer and excellent PP skills can produce. I do not have the best PP skills so I strive for better camera skills. Btw, great finished product.
It's no ansel adams or van gogh, but I completely saved the shot from disaster and made it presentable.
BEFORE
AFTER.
Great example of what a talent photographer and excellent PP skills can produce. I do not have the best PP skills so I strive for better camera skills. Btw, great finished product.
Thank you.
When the last candle has been blown out
and the last glass of champagne has been drunk
All that you are left with are the memories and the images-David Cooke.
Shadowfixer1 wrote: This was an experiment gone wrong. Most here will remember this image. I think I salvaged the image somewhat. Not completely, but some.
Before
After
Nice save!
When the last candle has been blown out
and the last glass of champagne has been drunk
All that you are left with are the memories and the images-David Cooke.
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