DSLR + Photoshop. Is it a must?


Status
Not open for further replies.

kitchionh

New Member
Dec 28, 2007
52
0
0
Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I know this question is a bit anal but I feel that with the advancement in technology, no need to use good camera or lens, worry about framing and composition etc etc. Just snap and photoshop it. Everyone can be a great "photographer". Just need to be IT proficient.

In the old film SLR world, every shot is precious. Are pics in those days lousier? Maybe more natural.

I'm not against tech advancement but just a thought. Do you agree??

Rgds,
 

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I know this question is a bit anal but I feel that with the advancement in technology, no need to use good camera or lens, worry about framing and composition etc etc. Just snap and photoshop it. Everyone can be a great "photographer". Just need to be IT proficient.

In the old film SLR world, every shot is precious. Are pics in those days lousier? Maybe more natural.

I'm not against tech advancement but just a thought. Do you agree??

Rgds,

not true. pp doesnt just mean correcting things that you shld have avoided during the photo taking stage. some people add effects to their photos which can never be duplicated in camera. if u are particular abt b&w pics, u will not do it in camera as well. :nono:

burning, dodging used in photoshop have been long used in post processing during film days. it is just more convenient and easy now. a necessary evil? :think:
 

I know this question is a bit anal but I feel that with the advancement in technology, no need to use good camera or lens, worry about framing and composition etc etc. Just snap and photoshop it. Everyone can be a great "photographer". Just need to be IT proficient.
You saying this is so, or asking a question?

If you are asking, then one answer can be for you to experiment with what you said, ie just "snap and photoshop" and make a good photo. And then you know if what you said is true or not.

One hint to you is that it is always been garbage in garbage out in the IT world, is it not?

Now regarding the processing part, even if you dont do do the so called photoshop, the camera will "photoshop" for you anyway - with its internal processor - whether you know it or not, like it or not. That's the meaning of an "out of camera" picture.

No picture comes direct from the sensor. The bits have to be interpreted and thats what image processing is all about. So you can either leave it to your dumb camera to do the interpretation for you or you do it with your intelligent seeing eye. Photoshop is just a tool to do such intelligent interpretation.

And would anyone complain you used a hammer, and nails, to make a chair? (OK some will say no nails, or else its not carpentry.)
 

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I know this question is a bit anal but I feel that with the advancement in technology, no need to use good camera or lens, worry about framing and composition etc etc. Just snap and photoshop it. Everyone can be a great "photographer". Just need to be IT proficient.

In the old film SLR world, every shot is precious. Are pics in those days lousier? Maybe more natural.

I'm not against tech advancement but just a thought. Do you agree??

Rgds,

This misconception has been floating around since digital cameras became readily available to the masses. Editing is not about saving a bad photo, its prupose is to enhance and realise the potential of a photo.

Basic workflow includes sharpening, toning, colour adjustments, etc. Things that people do with film to begin with. So what is your definition of natural? Ask yourself, how many photos of yours turned out to have the exact same colour, tones, etc as you see it when you take it? The very action of taking photos with your camera is already a form of manipulation. You adjust apertures and speed don't you? If "natural" is what you meant by "straight out of the camera", then film users can forget about filters, darkroom,, etc. Heck, even B&W is no longer "natural".

Computers had opened up a whole lot of windows for experimentation, be it good or bad but who's to say what's good or bad anyway?
 

just think this way, photography is just like a girl, photoshop just like facial make up,

since when a girl start to know about make up?

does a girl need make up??

can a girl go without make up??

what if a girl having too much make up??
 

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I know this question is a bit anal but I feel that with the advancement in technology, no need to use good camera or lens, worry about framing and composition etc etc. Just snap and photoshop it. Everyone can be a great "photographer". Just need to be IT proficient.

In the old film SLR world, every shot is precious. Are pics in those days lousier? Maybe more natural.

I'm not against tech advancement but just a thought. Do you agree??

Rgds,

another analogy other than catchlights' one is that photoshop work is like seasoning to food. let's say, you have an excellent chicken drumstick. the chicken has been fed top grade corn for all its living years and it is fantastic in taste. this is your photographic image before pp. certainly, you can leave it as it is. it will be ok. it will taste better than normal chicken drumstick (superior to compact camera images, in terms of IQ), especially since you have put in so much work into rearing the chicken (composition, technicalities).

give it to a master chef, and he will do so much better than you, with seasoning, spices (photoshop work). he will bring out a certain extra flavour, make your chicken drumstick go that extra mile.. he will make it a world-class dish.

give it to a quack chef, he will pretend that he can do it, he will add rosemary, parsley.. and spoil the chicken drumstick everytime he gets a new one. either he adds too much spices, or he adds too much seasoning, or he adds stuff that does not go with the drumstick you would be better off eating charcoal - this is just like overdone pp, or pp where the person doing the pp doesn't know what the hell he is doing.

so what do you want? a normal chicken drumstick which tastes slightly better, or a world-class dish?

there is still a difference between a SNAPSHOT and a shot where the composition is good, the technical aspects are good. so don't just blindly spout words such as "can anyhow snap and photoshop out a 春天", there is no such thing. good shots can be improved by pp, mediocre shots can be rendered above average by pp, but NOTHING, and i repeat, NOTHING will save a crap shot.

here's a snap i did with my laptop camera. i suppose i could have done it with my dslr but i think it would have been a waste of time.. are you telling me that photoshop is going to make this picture a world-class photographic competition winner?

2182143192_cbbd39648d.jpg


like others have mentioned, there was the darkroom, now there is photoshop. ansel adams, a famous landscape photographer, spent a lot of time in the darkroom as well. in some sense, photoshop has been around much longer than you think it has.
 

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I have this problem too as i always like to add a touch of photoshop to my shots everytime.
It always came out better as I am a lousy photographer. So everytime I used photoshop I feel so lousy LOL but yet again like what ortega said PP is just like darkroom work and the statements had make me feel better. I hope I will use less photoshop in the future though.:thumbsup:
 

The picture must be good in the first place and use PP to enhance it.

If the photo is lousy - out of focus, messy bg, under/overexposed and etc, PP can help in certain degree, over PP will created halo and noise. Too much cropping will also lead to lost of sharpness and detail.

Like others had mention PP had been a long history even it film time. Only that lots of people didn't process their own photo at that time, that why they misunderstood that PP is only in digital age. Digital only make PP a lot more simple and powerful.
 

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I have this problem too as i always like to add a touch of photoshop to my shots everytime.
It always came out better as I am a lousy photographer. So everytime I used photoshop I feel so lousy LOL but yet again like what ortega said PP is just like darkroom work and the statements had make me feel better. I hope I will use less photoshop in the future though.:thumbsup:
 

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I have this problem too as i always like to add a touch of photoshop to my shots everytime.
It always came out better as I am a lousy photographer. So everytime I used photoshop I feel so lousy LOL but yet again like what ortega said PP is just like darkroom work and the statements had make me feel better. I hope I will use less photoshop in the future though.:thumbsup:
 

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I have this problem too as i always like to add a touch of photoshop to my shots everytime.
It always came out better as I am a lousy photographer. So everytime I used photoshop I feel so lousy LOL but yet again like what ortega said PP is just like darkroom work and the statements had make me feel better. I hope I will use less photoshop in the future though.:thumbsup:
 

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I have this problem too as i always like to add a touch of photoshop to my shots everytime.
It always came out better as I am a lousy photographer. So everytime I used photoshop I feel so lousy LOL but yet again like what ortega said PP is just like darkroom work and the statements had make me feel better. I hope I will use less photoshop in the future though.:thumbsup:
 

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Reading thru the excellent stuff in this forum, I've been thinking if using DSLR to take pictures and subsequent photoshop the pics in computer to create the desired effect is a must. ie. both come hand in hand. I mean, shouldn't taking pictures be there and then and not post processing? If you didn't get it right, you didn't. Why post process?

I have this problem too as i always like to add a touch of photoshop to my shots everytime.
It always came out better as I am a lousy photographer. So everytime I used photoshop I feel so lousy LOL but yet again like what ortega said PP is just like darkroom work and the statements had make me feel better. I hope I will use less photoshop in the future though.:thumbsup:
 

Photoshop or other software is equivalent to the physical dark room. Taking a photo is only part of the process. Your workflow necessarily includes "post processing", whether it be in a dark room processing your film or on a computer digitally processing your photos. You can get a photo lab to process your digital images exactly the same as processing a roll of film. Establishing a work flow is the way to get through the process quickly. Of course, taking the proper shot minimizes processing time. I use LR as I am not interested in spending time doing special effects. If a shot is bad, it gets dumped as I dont have hours on hand to individually process shots.
 

not a must, but can enhance the experience

PPing is like darkroom work

I agree with this.

Even film must go a darkroom to develop the photo out. They are the same thing for digital.
 

Status
Not open for further replies.