Do you edit your digital photos just because you can?
By simlock
@simlock (28)
United States
December 4, 2008 8:55am CST
With all the options for editing photographs in post, do you find yourself not knowing when to stop. Do you set yourself parameters and try not to go beyond them? At what point do you consider the editing "finished" or do you find yourself spending ages trying different saturations, crops, etc?
2 people like this
5 responses
@DoriLentrich (1016)
• United States
4 Dec 08
I try to stick with the original photo as much as possible. There's a reason I snapped it in the first place. However, sometimes your hand jiggles or your subjects look like demon spawn and you need to make they look pretty. But, you can crop and fiddle too much. I always try to save two copies of the photo, the original in all it's icky glory and the new copy. At the end of the process, if I find I like most of the original more than my new creation, I have to start over.
Editing photos has been a boon for those of us who never learned how to be photographers. But like any blessing, it can be a curse too.
@Davidarich (985)
• Australia
4 Dec 08
That's a bit patronising, Dori! I certainly "learned" how to be a photographer, both from expeience and through formal training, and I have the certificates to prove it as well as many national (and a few international) awards.
Cameras are tools of the trade of photography, but they are neither infallibile, nor the only tools. Various developers, fixers, timer, enlarger, dodging and burning tools, post-production filters etc., etc. are all necessary to achieving the photographers' vision; Digital processes are far cleaner and flexible, but the same applies.
If all you want to do is record a scene as the brain registered it, you will still need to adjust exposure, viewpoint, perspective etc. Your photo is never "natural", and the nature of digital photography is such that sharpening, saturation and so on will have to be performed either in the camera or in the computer. Learning to be a photographer is about learning how to manage those and many other variables, rather than just looking through a viewfinder and pressing a button.
@DoriLentrich (1016)
• United States
5 Dec 08
And you were not in the group to whom I was referring. I don't see how you find it patronizing for me to admit that I am not a professional, but find digital editing has opened many avenues to me for my personal use. But then I guess you probably justed wanted to crow about your experience. Good for you. Because of people who take the time to learn the art, we have beautiful pictures that capitalize on all the wonders of photography. Those of us peons who don't have that experience will just have to rely on the eyes God gave us and the old axiom, I may not know art, but I know what I like.
Simlock: Thanks for the best response!
@KatieDidit (989)
• United States
8 Jan 09
I love to play with editing of my photos just to see what kind of artistic, creative things I can do with them
I just make sure that I never, never, never edit the original even to do somthing like remove the red eye. I only play with copies.
@palonghorn (5479)
• United States
4 Dec 08
i probably edit about 75% of my photos. but for the most part it is only some cropping, possibly a little with sturation, warmth level, brightness, etc. i try to keep editing to a minimum, normally i take several shots of whatever the subject is, with the hopes of getting one great shot.
@Davidarich (985)
• Australia
4 Dec 08
I don't consider minor tweaks to sharpness, saturation and brightness to be "editing", and often that is all I do. However, since I generally take betweenn 350 and 600 photos per day (and up to twice that number) and process them the same night whenever possible, only a limited number are going to get a lot of attention (like everyone else, I try to get them right "in the camera!").
But a lot of pictures deserve more work - not to fix mistakes (which I will do if there is just no way around it, like a backup shot of the same subject), but to really showcase something special.
