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Your Post Processing Personality


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I have one, I think. I try to stay away from dark images, if possible. I like a lighter blue sky than the one a polarizing filter produces. I often open up the medium shadows of an image in Lightroom, and I often pick up trash in PP from images taken on the street. I like upbeat better than downbeat when shooting people.

 

Given that nothing is 100% one direction in photography (or in any art), what is your PP Personality?  

 

Ed

 

 

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In a word, my PP personality is "lazy." I enjoy post-processing about as much as I like doing my laundry. Consequently, I usually do the minimum technical PP that Alamy requires, and that's it. I think Photoshop and the like are a conspiracy to get us to spend money and waste time, which I'm good at already. Improving my actual photo-taking skills is something I'm always keen on, though.

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John, I find that I must too often do an endless amount of spotting on my NYC street subjects, like shop windows. It's madding and too time consuming. Yesterday, I was shooting skyscrapers, and there was zero spotting to do. I would just like to deal with a cleaner world than the one I find in New York City. 

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Yes, I guess Vancouver is probably a lot less spotty than NYC. However, the seagulls here do an excellent job of whitewashing just about everything in sight. I've basically given up trying trying to clean up after them. Mind you, nothing beats us Homo sapiens when it comes to leaving messes behind.

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As a tech junkie, I love the post processing part, until the tedium part sets in.  I took a whole pile of pics of our cows, but only submitted two of them as I got tired of taking all the flies off of their faces and bodies.

 

I enjoy the tweaking of the image over the cleaning up of the image.

 

And now I am finally off to the fair.

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I'm fastidious about image quality... while acknowledging that there are many gaps in my technical knowledge.

 

PP tends to be similar for most pix. I suppose I could create some 'auto action', but I prefer to treat each pic individually.

 

For Alamy I try to give the pix a little 'pop', so they look OK at thumbnail size...

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It's a great idea to stop PP when you start to get tired of doing it. Not bored. But tired. I think there's a difference.

 

With PP in LR4 for instance, if I find if it's taking too long then I usually trash the image and go to the next. PP should be quick but not crazy fast where you become careless.

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The first 100 or so images of mine were processed in LR4. I tried to add my own little taste of PP to them. I quickly learned that the stock industry needs pure and clean images and I was wasting my time in LR. I started using Canons DPP and my PP kind of went out the window in favour of getting the numbers up. I learned how to use photoshop over the years on different projects. Adding things in, replacing skies, the correct way and not just using quick selection. I started learning how to see the light in my edits. Making sure the direction of light was consistent, because that's who I started viewing other peoples edits and seeing the flaw in their lack of ability to direct the light. 

 

I work on a 24" LED monitor at work and PP is so nice. At home I work on a 15" screen laptop and PP is dire. My personality in PP is mainly how I wanted to see a scene and not what it was. A good photographer with time is patient and the scene comes with the changing light. A retoucher changes the scene. 

 

Just the way I see it. However, for Alamy It's no frills, a few changes in DPP and upload. Too scared to go crazy. 

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When I first started with Alamy and read many posts, I thought 'well might not have many sales here' with little B&W around compared to color. Though prolly would make more than I did on micro and refuse to sell my images for less than a quarter, so gave it a go. Still was a bit leery until I saw some of the images up on Alamy that are PP beyond the norm and at present one of the photogs is featured. Now I put up a mix of things; norm, creative, and B&W, which surprisingly enough are the ones that have been zoomed on/sold since what I've read here is B&W don't do well for others/sell much.

 

Then again I'm pretty green yet and learning, but I do enjoy the creative editing when in the mood. ;) And more often than not, what comes from that is much better, to me, then the original. Yet I don't think it has to do with being a bad photog, but as one who wishes to push the envelop outside the normal box and show the possibilities to those who might not otherwise see them. Reckon I never was very good at being confined to boxes, so I do what I think looks best. Might not be conducive with stock though... only time will tell.

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Tend to go with the light bright and contrasty, but careful about noise.

 

Quite enjoy PP, used to enjoy using Canon's DPP followed by PS, now LR and PS. Generally fix mildly converging verticals, un-horizontal horizontals and almost always adjust levels and contrast curve.

 

Like Ed I am a compulsive tidier up, often pick up and bin litter at our local bus stop and clone it out elsewhere in PS.

 

Very occasionally use the rather aggressive Landscape and Reversal Film LR presets that Duncan once introduced to these chambers, suits some subjects.

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Pretty conservative but quite a few gradients or burn-ins in LR for sky improvements. A couple of presets on import as I shoot jpegs as flat as possible. Sometimes a straighten, or a crop to help the thumbnail. A bit of NR on the high ISOs.

More than a couple of minutes/image on PP isn't cost-effective. Most go as-is from LR.

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  I took a whole pile of pics of our cows, but only submitted two of them as I got tired of taking all the flies off of their faces and bodies.

 

"Fly on cow"  225 results

"Flies on cows"  75 results

"Flies on cows" PR  0 results

 

Don't be too quick with the clone tool!

 

Maybe I should resubmit the ones I put on, but leave the flies on those, using different keywords.   I suppose an agricultural magazine or newspaper might want pics of cows with flies on them.

 

I shall think about that. Thanks.

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  I took a whole pile of pics of our cows, but only submitted two of them as I got tired of taking all the flies off of their faces and bodies.

 

"Fly on cow"  225 results

"Flies on cows"  75 results

"Flies on cows" PR  0 results

 

Don't be too quick with the clone tool!

 

Maybe I should resubmit the ones I put on, but leave the flies on those, using different keywords.   I suppose an agricultural magazine or newspaper might want pics of cows with flies on them.

 

I shall think about that. Thanks.

 

That's cool. We all miss these double meanings in pics quite a bit I think. If you can identify the flies and get close enough you're into another genre again....

Regarding PP Personality I err on the side of warmth I think, maybe its just my auto white balance but I nearly always add red and yellow, moving away from the blues. I perhaps pursue realism at the expense of creativity but thats partly due to preferring to be taking more pics than slaving on the computer...

I clone out as little as possible, generally only the (few these days) dust spots.

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