BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

Ratio Of Film to Digitally Enhanced Images

I am dedicated to film right now, but from time to time do touch up work in Photoshop as well as complete image manipulation. However, in your contest, I was wondering what I was up against. I turned in a picture where the only enhancement came by using a soft focus filter during the shoot. Am I competing against people who may have taken a less than perfect picture, but dressed it up in Photoshop? Not that it matters too much or that I am complaining... just curious.

Thanks!

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December 16, 2002

Of course I try for as many out of the camera shots as I can, but in my opinion, all images benefit from a little PS work.

The most used tools in PS for me are curves... a necessity for bringing out the tonal values in different tonal ranges and to make that final image "pop". I tend to underexpose all my images on purpose so as not to blow out any highlights. Due to this it is necessary to use curves to enhance the image.

The clone tool. Nothing bothers me more than tiny distractions in a photo. I always go over my final image and clone out any distracting light areas, or dirt on a flower for example.

Rotate and crop - I cannot stand crooked horizons or lines.

Perspective tools - because I enjoy architectural images, I use this tool a lot. I can't afford a PC lens (perspective correction), so I must do all the perspective corrections in PS.

To me those are normal editing techniques and do not constitue heavily manipulated images. Even when I used film, these techniqes were the same. Nothing in my workflow has changed due to going digital (except the boring scanning part!!).

Personally, I would never try to pass off an image that I combined a new background or other elements from more than one image as an "out of camera" shot. To me that is digital art and I would make that clear!

Just my personal observations!

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December 17, 2002