Lens Flair

and if someone doesnt want to photoshop his/hers pictures?
 
Some of my old stuff
997_911_GT2_by_lokkydesigns.jpg
 
and if someone doesnt want to photoshop his/hers pictures?

Fine by me, but I was just showing what you can do with just a simple adjustment. Can be done with just about any image editing program (I think), so Photoshop is not required.

Sure, you might get an image which looks great / just like you wanted straight out of the camera, but there's always something you can and should do in post processing: resize for web use and sharpen. If the image comes out flat, use levels or curves to bring the image to life. And if your camera happened to be a little tilted, rotate and crop the image to better make it match your vision.
 
epp_b: either you have two dogs and they look the same and you took two identical pictures or you have posted same picture before already.. previous page...

raparperi: i agree, but there are some photographers who do not do anything for their pictures and like it that way.
 
and if someone doesnt want to photoshop his/hers pictures?

I don't see the point, but then I'd try to get the expression I liked during exposure, and add contrast in camera.

But that's just me.
 
If, by "Photoshop", you mean "doctored", it doesn't matter. If all you ever need to do is make contrast and tone adjustments (even distortion correction), a simple, free program like IrfanView will do the trick (and do it very well, I might add).

I find that photos don't usually have right tone, contrast or saturation straight out of the camera for my style, but I occasionally play with other effects and functions as well, which is why I use Corel PhotoPaint.
 
Last edited:
There is no such thing as the right exposure. For that to happen, the contrast range of your camera and the contrast range of the scene should match completely (where in reality, the camera lacks significantly), and the medium grey you set should be at exactly 18% (which is impossible to determine with the naked eye). If you want your photograph to represent what you saw and wanted to capture as closely as possible, you HAVE to post process it.
 
There might be the right exposure for you.

As for me, I refuse to allow a camera engineer in Japan to deciede how my images should look.

:)
 
Holy shit that last one is epic...how did you get the lights to blur, but the car to be sharp yet see through?

Here's mine for the day:

http://img90.imageshack.**/img90/3545/dsc0586kl6.jpg

does snow or heavily white backgrounds always mess up like that? well i shouldnt say mess up if thats what you were going for, but i mean do nearly all white scenes come out looking a little off grey?
 
Last edited:
Holy shit that last one is epic...how did you get the lights to blur, but the car to be sharp yet see through?
The car is within the central depth of field and a long shutter speed was used.

does snow or heavily white backgrounds always mess up like that? well i shouldnt say mess up if thats what you were going for, but i mean do nearly all white scenes come out looking a little off grey?
Snow is white and reflects a lot of light, so your 18% grey camera metering will darken the scene severely.

Here's what it looks like after using auto-balance in Corel PhotoPaint:

https://pic.armedcats.net/e/ep/epp_b/2009/01/25/forums.finalgear.com_THE_REAL_STIG_snowy_scene.jpg
 
Last edited:
There might be the right exposure for you.

As for me, I refuse to allow a camera engineer in Japan to deciede how my images should look.

:)
The camera engineer in Japan is only following the standards that were set by the pioneers in photography. You obviously have no idea about photography, but just like to snap shots. Do you even know what medium grey is? Or dynamic range? What about the relationship between ASA and ISO? The difference between 12 bit and 14 bit raw? Or how a histogram works? How to set white balance using levels and curves?
 
Solberg, how could you possibly get negative rep for that bird photo? That is excellent! I'd +rep you if I could, but the stupid forum won't let me.

I thought it was kinda obvious it was an accidental -rep, considering it even says "+ rep" in the message.


does snow or heavily white backgrounds always mess up like that? well i shouldnt say mess up if thats what you were going for, but i mean do nearly all white scenes come out looking a little off grey?

Sort of. Cameras' metering systems are designed to preserve highlights (especially in digital) so the camera meters the snow as 18% gray. Snow can be tough to shoot, sometimes you'll have to intentionally dial in some overexposure to get the image you want.
 
Last edited:
There is no such thing as the right exposure. For that to happen, the contrast range of your camera and the contrast range of the scene should match completely (where in reality, the camera lacks significantly), and the medium grey you set should be at exactly 18% (which is impossible to determine with the naked eye). If you want your photograph to represent what you saw and wanted to capture as closely as possible, you HAVE to post process it.

It's a lot more satisfying not having to touch a photograph after pressing the shutter, you can make it better but you don't have to. I often use grey cards, in fact I would go so far as to say I swear by them. A lot of people say they can correct it all in post production (which they can) but I very much doubt you will get it as accurate that way. As cameras meter from an 18% grey I have found that changing the white balance also makes the metering on a scene a lot more accurate too. If you want to render a scene perfectly you may as well give up, maybe in a few decades you can give it a go but for now you will get quite close and that's it. Another problem that I've found after switching from film to digital is that you spend a long time getting everything right in post production but then when it comes to printing you won't be able to show a lot of the gamut you've worked so hard to render accurately. Photographs are supposed to be printed and not viewed on the monitors, until printer technology speeds up I personally see little point in obtaining this kind of perfection :p.
 
If you want to display the correct gamut, you have to get your camera calibrated, get the ICC profile, calibrate your screen, and use a printer(person) that knows how to convert to the printer's own ICC profile with the correct intent.
 
I've got my monitor calibrated but I leave my camera calibration to the R&D department in Japan. In doing this I'm probably missing some accuracy but to be honest it's accuracy I don't miss. I liked using film and still like using film, I don't dwell on who decided to render the colours as they are rendered by different manufacturers, I just pick a film I like to look of or try something new. This stuff seems like sanitisation of Photography to me :dunno:.
 
It's no different than film photography if you really dived into the specifics. Yes, a photo will look nice if you take it and print it out, but if you want to control the whole proces to the last letter it's no more difficult or involved as film photography.
 
Top