Jump to content
Snow?
Local
Radar
Cold?
IGNORED

Enhancing Photo's


Recommended Posts

Posted
  • Location: Isle of wight
  • Location: Isle of wight

Good Evening all, Hope you all had a good Christmas. :D

I thought i would start this thread to get your opinons on " photo enhancing"

I know that people who take photo's in raw format have to do a certain amount of processing to achive the right finshed photo.

I take in jpg format and havent adventured over to raw yet. I dont really play around photo's i like them to be as natural as possible.

Today I went out to take some sunset pic's and was very disappointed by the results, due to so much cloud. But after playing around with a few of the photo they looked 100 times better.

Before

before10.jpg

After

after10.jpg

All that was done to the 2nd picture was i put a graduated tint (red) over the sky and it looked so much better. ( the programe i was using is Picasa 2)

So my questions is How many people on here use programmes such as photoshop etc to enhance there photo's? and is it the right thing to do?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Leeds (Roundhay) 135m
  • Location: Leeds (Roundhay) 135m

I sometimes use photo enhance on my photo printer however as you said i like to keep them as natural as possible. What you have done in the above pictures looks good though :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Redhill, Surrey
  • Location: Redhill, Surrey

I am not a great fan of enhancing pics, unless it for abstract work, I generally only crop mine or occasionally change it to black and white, but I suppose that is classed as enhancement.

I do play about with pics that are not shown to public sometimes just to see what results I can get, but then go out and try and get those results through my own ability.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: The Fens. 25 asl
  • Location: The Fens. 25 asl
I am not a great fan of enhancing pics, unless it for abstract work, I generally only crop mine or occasionally change it to black and white, but I suppose that is classed as enhancement.

I do play about with pics that are not shown to public sometimes just to see what results I can get, but then go out and try and get those results through my own ability.

Good topic! I tend to crop my pictures and put my copyright tingy in em but thats as far as i tend to venture, i have done a couple of black n white attempts though :D

Take your images at the top of the post the first one to me i prefer, as the second one does not look natural? (it maybe on my screen though as i have brightness and contrast way down for my eyes lol)

have seen a few hdr (think thats right) pictures others have done and i would not mind having a go, but i struggle enough to resize my pics :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Isle of wight
  • Location: Isle of wight

I nearly always put my name onto photo's which i do through the software that come with my canon camera.

I really do like this enhancment : http://kellyseyephotography.nice-gallery.n...-names-t129.htm

Which can be done through photoshop.

I know in adversting enhancments are used all the time, now really this is giving a false impression on the product/place or person.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything Extreme!
  • Location: Stanley, County Durham.

I very rarely enhance photos in photoshop, and if I do I say so. Even the photos on my website are not enhanced, but really I should enhance them because I know they could look a little better than what they are.

I don't see a problem with applying the same effects that a filter would give, for example in Kelly's sunset photo, if you had a brown grad filter on your camera you would possibly get a similar result.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Near Beverley, East Yorks. (5 metres a.s.l.)
  • Weather Preferences: Something good in all four seasons
  • Location: Near Beverley, East Yorks. (5 metres a.s.l.)

Interesting topic :D

I think perhaps the very best quality photo's are best 'natural'

The thing is tho', I only have a Sony Cyber Shot digital camera

and I find some photoshop enhancements serve to get me where

a better camera would .. (?)

I only recently discovered 'Picasa' and found that the one touch

'sharpening' tool enhanced perhaps 75% of my stock of holiday

pics, many of which are of buildings.

I'm pleased that I kept many photo's, as more and more additional

enhancement techniques seem to bring them back to some quality.

Even old prints, damaged over decades have been scanned in and

creases, marks 'repaired'.

I love fiddling with photoshop especially for arty effects and for

card making.

I certainly abide by the rules of photo competitions tho' and only

enter my best original attempts .. and of course never win ! LoL.

I may afford a good DSLR camera in the future, but will I be able

to master all that it offers ? LoL

Cheers,

BL x

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: runcorn, uk (near liverpool) 100m asl
  • Location: runcorn, uk (near liverpool) 100m asl

as a lot of people said and will agree with me they look better natural i take photos and have never enhanced one. great pics though kelly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: East Renfrewshire 180m asl
  • Location: East Renfrewshire 180m asl

I prefer natural however i am not against a lot of processing as long as it is stated when the picture is posted :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Atherstone in North Warwickshire
  • Location: Atherstone in North Warwickshire

Natural every time imho ... did a lot with Cokin filters back in the 80's and early 90's and I have to admit looking back I ruined some fantastic shots by adding gradients and tints.

KjF

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Isle of wight
  • Location: Isle of wight
are they all natural pics enterterd into the compertions?

All my photo's entered into comps are natural...

I think natural is best for sure... It was just good to see others thoughts on the subject.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: New Milton, Hampshire (55m AMSL)
  • Location: New Milton, Hampshire (55m AMSL)

When you say 'natural', it doesn't really mean anything. Do you take 'natural' to be an overexposed shot that the camera has done, perhaps at a 5° angle, or one which has been adjusted in RAW processing to become a scene that is as close as possible to what you saw with the naked eye?

RAW processing is no different to working in a 'digital darkroom', it's only when deliberate over-saturation/colour/contrast come in that it could be deemed 'photoshopped' IMO.

I always try to get the photo to look exactly as my eye saw it at the time, to convey the 'natural beauty' - sometimes this needs work with software however, so is this 'natural' in your eyes? Something to think about anyway :sorry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: south east London
  • Location: south east London

I'm with you cookie comp pics should be o natrel the quality of the picture should win not some doctered peice sfter all its peoples pictures that are being judged not peoples ablity to docter them!!

Ian Cameron

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Dublin, ireland
  • Weather Preferences: Snow , thunderstorms and wind
  • Location: Dublin, ireland

Great topic Kelly,

I have studied a lot about digital photography and photo enhancing.

First a small story.

I bought my 1st digital SLR a Canon 300D and the jpegs photos that cameout of the camera were dull and flat. I thought there was a problem with the camera.

I sold this camera and bought an Olympus compact C8080. The photos were magic!

Why the difference? I found that the C8080 was doing a large amount of inhouse "enhancing" or "processing".

The motto of this story is that all digital camera do a "little" or a "lot" of enhancing "out of the box" DSLR's do very little and compacts do a lot.

If you want to start from scratch you need to capture in "Raw" as this is the only format that has had no "in camera" enhancing. Then adjust the photo to get what you want.

So, where does that leave us. I suppose as the rest are saying "natural" is best. How do you get natural. Well you need to post process your photos to get what you think is natural or was what you saw at the time of taking the photo.

An absolutely subjective thing photography and thats what makes it a great hobby.

However, no amount of great camera or enhancing will make a great photo. It is the eye of the photographer that does that. That is what I have yet to learn.

Edited by John Cox
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: south London
  • Location: south London

My book on my new camera suggests raw is the best...I cant comment on much else on the subject still learning the camera and functions,but raw is highly rated in my booklet

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Sth Staffs/Shrops 105m/345' & NW Snowdonia 219m/719'
  • Location: Sth Staffs/Shrops 105m/345' & NW Snowdonia 219m/719'

In the pre-digital age, photos were enhanced by professionals and amateurs alike with filters etc or by adjusting the processing/printing in the dark room.

I see no difference compared to today's methods.

It all depends on what the end result needs to achieve and the audience it is meant for.

Edited by kar999
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...