I'm currently (still) working on my photos from my trip to Patagonia last Christmas. The process of taking the photo is actually one of the first steps to creating the final piece of work and this is something a lot of people don't realise.
Often people think that all you need to be a photographer is an expensive SLR but then they get disappointed when their photos don't look that great, even after they've been on a photographic workshop or course.
Obviously, if you know what you're doing with your camera and take your time it is possible to get great results straight out of the camera but when you're travelling you sometimes don't get the time to do this.
Even if you have the time to take the perfect shot it is often the case that the image can be enhanced with some creative image editing.
I sometimes I get asked what I mean by 'working' on my photos. This working phase starts with the filtering or editing process - you've taken tonnes of images but most of them will never be used so they're deleted.
Then using editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop I can start to get more creative and make those flat looking images come alive (not literally).
Here is a before and after example of one of my Patagonia images:
I shoot mainly RAW files (data taken straight from the sensor) which give you lots of flexibility when it comes to enhancing the images but they also need to be converted into a usable final file format like Jpeg or Tiff etc. For this I use Adobe Lightroom and as you can see from above screen shot it is quite a powerful program.
There are also some people who see this as cheating! Digital image editing uses the same principles of darkroom developing but in a digital environment and with loads of extras thrown in. So personally I see this as an evolution of the photographic art.
After the processing is complete I come up with a title for my images, add keywords (so they can be found on online searches and finally publish them online.
So, now you know what I'm doing when 'working' on my photos!
Thanks for reading.
Russ
Often people think that all you need to be a photographer is an expensive SLR but then they get disappointed when their photos don't look that great, even after they've been on a photographic workshop or course.
Obviously, if you know what you're doing with your camera and take your time it is possible to get great results straight out of the camera but when you're travelling you sometimes don't get the time to do this.
Even if you have the time to take the perfect shot it is often the case that the image can be enhanced with some creative image editing.
I sometimes I get asked what I mean by 'working' on my photos. This working phase starts with the filtering or editing process - you've taken tonnes of images but most of them will never be used so they're deleted.
Then using editing software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop I can start to get more creative and make those flat looking images come alive (not literally).
Here is a before and after example of one of my Patagonia images:
I shoot mainly RAW files (data taken straight from the sensor) which give you lots of flexibility when it comes to enhancing the images but they also need to be converted into a usable final file format like Jpeg or Tiff etc. For this I use Adobe Lightroom and as you can see from above screen shot it is quite a powerful program.
There are also some people who see this as cheating! Digital image editing uses the same principles of darkroom developing but in a digital environment and with loads of extras thrown in. So personally I see this as an evolution of the photographic art.
After the processing is complete I come up with a title for my images, add keywords (so they can be found on online searches and finally publish them online.
So, now you know what I'm doing when 'working' on my photos!
Thanks for reading.
Russ
