To edit or not to edit????

[jrdnc09]

How much editing does one do before posting a pic for critiquing, particularly if using enhancement tools, for example 'picasa' and the many million others???

I have used in the past quite liberally when using my point and shoot, as I am alot more conscious of my pics using DSLR - not too sure what is acceptable and what is not!! (is there such a thing as photographic etiquette??)

Cheers

Jo

[mongo]

Mongo recently posted the following comment in a similar post titled "straight out of the gun"

"Post processing is not a new feature of the digital age. Mongo loves Ansel Adams’ work. He could take a reasonably good straight image but it was relatively ordinary until he did what he is largely famous for – his “magic” by way of his post processing in the dark room to turn it into something quite outstanding. The degree of manipulation was not simple or superficial - it was quite involved.

Photography is a visual art form and photographers, like artist, should not be constrained by their choice of use of work media. Everyone should be able to use whatever tools are available and do the best they can with those. We are all in the same boat and there should be no excuses to complain about others’ use of all such tools (except perhaps photo enhancing steroids).

Before digital, Mongo only shot slide film and B&W. The closest thing to pure photography was the slide film straight out of the camera and developed normally. Everything else was a manipulation to some degree or other.

As far as Mongo is concerned, all is fair in love, war and photography. So it was in the film era – so it will be in the digital era."

[jim]

As Mongo says. As much as you feel is necessary to do the job.*

*Preferably not much more than a light sharpen and levels or curves**

**Personal preference.

[Miaow]

I try not too do too much on normal pics- sharpen if needed (depends on lens using tamron 90mm doesnt really need it have found), maybe levels, maybe bit of contrast brightness adjustments if needed, mono conversions if warranted. I do play with other plgins sometimes if I feel the pic might look good with them.

[ricktas]

Personal choice really. Do as much or as little as you want to

[Kym]

In the film era some people got their pictures printed direct from the negatives with minimal darkroom processing.
Others of us used enlargers, cropped, dodged, burned, played with chemicals and timing to alter saturation and/or contrast.

Software is the digital darkroom for the modern photographer and is 1000x more powerful, accessible, flexible, and even safer than a wet darkroom.

[dbax]

for me it varies from image to image, if you wish to show it as it was then just enough to bring out the best. If you want to express it as art then anything goes. No straight answer.

[ving]

as above... i usually dont do very much at all but it all depends on what i am trying the achieve.

[lyxivan]

If you happy with the result from the camera, I don't see any reason to waste your time to edit it.

But I never happy with it

[dche5390]

I do whatever it takes to get what I want out of the photo. Then a few weeks later, look at the PP and cringe and redo it with another take. Its subjective.

[Robert Horler]

I will put my two bob in, usually only crop and sharpen. Personally,I don't enjoy too much manipulation.

[stoogest]

In many cases, a photo out of an SLR may require more post processing than a photo form a p&s, particularly if you are shooting in RAW format.

For me, as long as you're not adding anything to an image that wasn't already there then it's all good.

Cheers!
Andrew.

[mcdesign]

Mongo recently posted the following comment in a similar post titled "straight out of the gun"

"Post processing is not a new feature of the digital age. Mongo loves Ansel Adams’ work. He could take a reasonably good straight image but it was relatively ordinary until he did what he is largely famous for – his “magic” by way of his post processing in the dark room to turn it into something quite outstanding. The degree of manipulation was not simple or superficial - it was quite involved.

Photography is a visual art form and photographers, like artist, should not be constrained by their choice of use of work media. Everyone should be able to use whatever tools are available and do the best they can with those. We are all in the same boat and there should be no excuses to complain about others’ use of all such tools (except perhaps photo enhancing steroids).

Before digital, Mongo only shot slide film and B&W. The closest thing to pure photography was the slide film straight out of the camera and developed normally. Everything else was a manipulation to some degree or other.

As far as Mongo is concerned, all is fair in love, war and photography. So it was in the film era – so it will be in the digital era."

Well put Mongo.

[peterking]

I agree with Mongo.
My personal choice is,
Adjust White balance if need.
Crop.
Sharpen
Post.

I refuse to add anything, because I don't know how. And I hate to remove anything, for the same reason.
I am working to get what I want from the camera.
Once I've achieved that consistently I will look to the software to get more.

[bigdazzler]

Like everything in this game .. it depends on what youre trying to achieve.

My travel photography has very little editing applied, whereas my portraiture has a bit more. All depends on what youre after, and what youre going to use the pictures for.

IMPORTANT NOTE : RAW files will always need a degree of post editing applied, because they are exactly that, RAW data.

[Brian500au]

Remember if you are shooting JPG then the file is post edited in the camera. Most modern cameras allow you to adjust the output of the JPG in the camera - so in effect every shot downloaded to your computer already has some correction. As others have pointed out the only file not post edited in the camera is the raw data - this will always need some editing on your computer. In my opinion the amount of time spent editing is really proportional to the audience you are preparing the photo to be presented to.

[rattle]

I'm finding this to be a very interesting subject as I'm a newbie.

Because I'm new to this (had my camera 2 weeks), I feel that the photos that I will show people should be straight from the camera as that is the result of my efforts with the camera at the time.

Having said that, I am already looking at some of my pictures and thinking that if it wasn't for one particular thing, which could be edited, I'd be 100% satisfied with the photo.

I do look at pictures by others that have been edited for whatever reason and I'm just blown away with the result though.

It will be interesting to see which way I go with this as time goes by.
For now, I just need to learn how to take a half decent photo. Hah, Hah.

[ricktas]

I'm finding this to be a very interesting subject as I'm a newbie.

Because I'm new to this (had my camera 2 weeks), I feel that the photos that I will show people should be straight from the camera as that is the result of my efforts with the camera at the time.

Having said that, I am already looking at some of my pictures and thinking that if it wasn't for one particular thing, which could be edited, I'd be 100% satisfied with the photo.

I do look at pictures by others that have been edited for whatever reason and I'm just blown away with the result though.

It will be interesting to see which way I go with this as time goes by.
For now, I just need to learn how to take a half decent photo. Hah, Hah.

Take it slow, don't try and learn everything at once. But there are some things you should learn how to do earlier than others, you will find that once you learn how to adjust levels and sharpen your photos, that alone can make a huge difference

[draco]

i almost always crop my photos as an effect of straightening horizon and try to adjust colours to my liking and then post.. not that I don't like to PP but I just don't have the time and skills yet

[bigbaz]

I don't really edit, as i don't know how to do it