Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

Good evening fellow Hoggers. I am having trouble with something. The something is editing. I'm a newbie to photography not to software. My problem is I can edit ANY photo to be perfect. By using focus stacking inserting objects from other photos cloning the list goes on. Is there somewhere that editing is limited or non existent. Are there enough people here who may have an interest in a area for unedited photos? I understand the line between lightly edited and IMHO created is a sticking point. That said how about ZERO EDITING. Just a thought from a person who has shot for a year and have been hell bent on taking great photos not making them. I hope no one thinks I'm bashing highly edited photos. They are amazingly beautiful. I just would rather be taking photographs instead of sitting in front of my computer. All opinions are respected. Let's hear from everyone. Thank you all for all the information you all post and especially the photos. Thanks again Bob

Brokenland

My personal objective is to not edit anything and rely on the use of filters. I never was a software master but would use cropping from time to time. My advice, don't edit anything, you're projecting a false image and I would rather see what was taken without any post editing. AlLaNatural.

alliebess Loc: suburban Philadelphia

I limit editing, using just enough to make the photograph show what I saw. Do crop as needed to draw attention to what I see as the main subject.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Well, you're more talented than I am. I have lots of photos that I am unable to edit to perfection. OTOH, leaving them unedited is even worse.

I pretty much edit everything. All my files go into Lightroom since it's my DAM of choice. As long as they're in LR, editing is easy. Sometimes it's just cropping, sometimes WB touchup, sometimes total transmogrification. A few don't get any treatment but it's rare.

If you are happy with your photos, edited or not, who am I to complain?

(I have a long history with computers dating back to the '50s, so I'm comfortable sitting in front of one).

Frank T Loc: New York, NY

If its photo jouralism then dont edit.
If its art, do whatever you want.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

There is no camera in existence that can capture an absolutely accurate rendition of reality. Why is removing barrel distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting portraying a false image? In reality the untouched image is more false. And what's wrong with adding contrast and sharpness to an image in post processing to enhance the final image?

Manipulation in the darkroom has be done by photographers for many decades. Digital cameras routinely apply contrast, sharpness, and colortone when they automatically post process the raw images to create jpegs, and they do it with far more rudimentary tools and far less control. The idea that there is more honesty and integrity shooting straight out of the camera for anyone who is not a documenting news or sports events. is just plain silly. Shoot in raw, take the images you want, and process them any way that pleases you.

Grahame Loc: Fiji

I would love to know your secret because having been shooting for years I can not make all of my photos "perfect".

As an example how do you make a way out of focus BIF image "perfect", or a sportsman's face recognisable so it's "perfect" when it has been shot in appalling harsh light conditions?



But your software 'edits' the sensor data to enable you to view it on a screen?




It all comes down to what you consider "making" them refers to. It's also possible to take what an individual considers "great" photos when another individual may not consider them "great" without an obviously needed edit.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

One answer is that he could easily be much better at deleting than I am. I will readily admit my faults in that regard. I keep way too many shots that should have been canned at triage time.

PS: by the term "editing" I am not including keywording, which I find to be an essential function of editing software that includes DAM which enables me to find photos from long ago that I even forgot that I took.

MW

ALL digital photos (film too) are “false” in some sense. You are projecting light reflected from three dimensional objects on to a two dimensional surface. The are non-resolvable color issues as well.

If this were not enough, your brain edits and processes the images reflected onto your two retinas. Some of these edits cause you to “see” things you brain expects rather than what is actually in the image. The most obvious examples are optical illusions. You also see this in landscapes where a straight photo can seem flat because it does not convey what you felt about the place when you were physically there.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Or don't want.

I look at my image to see if it can be adjusted to look better.
If I can tweak an image to be more vivid, more enticing, more appealing, I will.
Who wouldn't want that?
(I'd love to know how many of the Nat Geo published images are unedited...)

Never manipulate journalistic shots!

Besides, if you set all the sliders IN the camera and take the shot, what's the difference?
You get to say it's SOOC???

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The only way you'll silence the skeptics is to show some of your SOOC perfect results, or even just a few that could be edited to perfection.

If you don't prefer editing, there's nothing wrong with working with your composition, focus, and camera settings to achieve excellent results SOOC (straight out of camera). If you're skilled at avoiding distracting items in the background, keeping your horizons level, and limit yourself to situations where ISO-100 can be used, your modern DSLR will produce excellent results. If you adjust your image resolution settings, you can also create file sizes much easier to share than the full resolution (Large / Fine) JPEGs that don't post and don't email easily.

Personally, even though I shoot in raw with the express purpose of editing, I still try to minimize what needs to be done later on the computer. I compose as close to the intended crop as possible. I move my focus points around the frame, again to minimize work later, even if cropping is one of the easiest tools. When I shot only JPEG, I'd use a white card, custom WB and / or one of the camera's WB settings that matched to the situation. I would also adjust the sharpening and contrast defaults of my preferred pictures styles in the camera. Finally, I'd have lens correction profiles enabled in the camera.

There's no right / wrong way to be a photographer. The only photographer you have to be better than is the one you were yesterday. Taking the best photo with the camera and living with the result is a fine approach, if that's the extent of your interest in creating your images. You might also look at full-auto tools like PerfectlyClear that can run in batch for that light touch of 'perfection' that cannot be accomplished with the limited controls available in the camera, like noise processing and advanced sharpening.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

That is one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever read. First of all, I'm not sure I believe any photo is perfect. There are certainly things in a photo which can't be fixed. You can't fix lousy composition, you can't fix out of focus, you can't fix large exposure errors, get detail in blown highlights. You can't fix excessive noise.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I don't spend a lot of time in front of my computer editing.
I only edit images when I'm going to use them (printing or posting).

Drbobcameraguy Loc: Eaton Ohio

I agree with you completely. I'm not against editing which I believe I stated in the state if this thread. I believe in each to his own. I crop occasionally I will adjust exposure and every now and again I do some hdr combining just for kicks. What I guess I'm trying to say is what I believe I ask. How about a place for unedited photos. A place to post our straight photos so the camera skill is what is being measured. I'm in my 60th year. I've been into computers when we had green screens and 7 universities in the net. I have lived and breathed computing for 45 years. Yes I was ate up with it at an early age. I had an isdn line when most everyone was running a 14400 modem. I have been to more Photoshop classes before 1995 than most people have birthdays. I've stayed current because I'm a geek and a perfectionist. Thank you grandpa. Lol. You can take Photoshop and create or change anything you want. They guy talking about the famous sports person. Yes you can cut his head off your photo and install a perfect photo of his head on your photo. Yes great skill is involved in all types of the things I mentioned in my first post. I guess I was just wondering if anyone had an interest in a place to put photos that are unedited. Photos that we can see are not perfect but still wonderful. I'm sorry to have disturbed so many if you. If you read my post I was not bashing anyone and complimenting everyone on their skills. I have my answer. Most do not want to see their faults in their pictures. They want to edit them out. Great they look great. It is a skill to be appreciated. I did it when I started taking pictures. Before that I did it for animation because it interested me. Now I was hoping we could find a few purist who might like to compare unedited imperfect pics just because we could learn more from each other. I still and always will respect everyone's opinion. Don't understand why it's not a two way street. Lol. Thank you for listening and commenting.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

Actually, with digital photography you don't have a choice. Either the camera edits or you edit. You'd need to do film photography and then use the same exact process for each roll of film and you might turn out with something unedited. Occasionally I 'll get the perfect RAW shot and I don't have to do anything to it, even clean up sensor dust, but that is in the minority. Oftentimes I'll have to adjust a number of factors to ensure the image ends up looking the best it can. My goal is to turn out images as beautiful as they can be, using whatever means technology allows. And, I like to experiment and create so I find it fun to do a lot of different things with images. I think you should show some of your "perfect" shots so we can see by example and learn.