Howdy to all…
Here’s a great read from Kevin Michael Reed’s ExposingFashion Blog entitled “Stop this ‘Fix It In Photoshop’ nonsense!”
I get a sense of righteous anger from Kevin that is well-placed….I blogged briefly about this last year on this post, but Kevin, as a working photographer who has to deal in the sometimes surrealistic and admittedly vain world of fashion photography, puts it even more succinctly. It is definitely a more in-depth analysis on why this trend of “I’ll-Just-Fix-It-In-Photoshop” has to stop!!! (Oh, and Kevin must be a great guy – after all, he quoted me in his post 🙂 )
Bottom line – – – There is no substitute for good photography!!
How about you? Got any “I’ll-Just-Fix-It-In-Photoshop” horror stories to share? Go ahead and comment – We’re “All-Ears” (And they aren’t “photoshopped” in!) …
Cheers,
John 🙂
I have a friend who is somewhat into Photoshop and he will take a few shots of a subject, say a flower, and then say that’s enough, I’ll do the rest in Photoshop.
I like to play around with the subject a lot, different angles, different distances, etc. I don’t like to mess with PS that much, just some basic stuff. That said, though, I feel that I’m missing out on some things due to my novice level skills in PS. Maybe after I get my printer all tuned up and calibrated with my monitor, I’ll be more motivated to spend time getting that impressive look on screen and print!
Paul – –
The mindset of “I don’t like to mess with PS that much” is to be applauded! I wish more photographers were like that…
PS is a great tool – but that is all it is – – a tool…It allows you to enhance your digital images in the same way that Ansel Adams enhanced his negatives – – you can bring out the best your image has to offer…
Cheers,
John 🙂
John,
Thank you for sharing my article with your readers.
You’re right there’s probably some anger in my response to the “Fix It In Photoshop” method. You’re right, there’s no good substitute for good photography and I think what I was trying to point out is that taking the easy way out on-set affects workflow (which photographers are always complaining about) and it affects the clients bottom line. Commercial photographers are constantly complaining that they don’t make enough money, but maybe our rates could be higher if we weren’t “spending” a large amount of the clients budget on post. We’d also see a better bottom line for ourselves.
I’m also very concerned about the quality of the image that I turn over to my clients and it’s a fact that nearly everything we do in Photoshop is destructive to the image. While there are many VERY GOOD retouchers and I have seen some amazing work done by well trained retouchers, I hear from clients all the time that they had so many problems with their previous photographer — most of those problems when properly researched were due to improper Post.
Anyway, thanks again from a loyal reader!
KMR
Hi Kevin…
Excellent comments – – More “Pearls of Wisdom” …It’s always great to get an opinion from a working photographer whose specialty is one that I’m not that familiar with – – Fashion/Corporate – – as most of my clients are Landscape/Nature/Scenic…
Thanks again, and I look forward to more posts and comments from you!
John 🙂
I agree with you that the best photos are composed in the camera. I use Photoshop to download my RAW pictures and make ‘darkroom’ changes that may not have been possible on the shoot. But, it is amazing what you miss when shooting and using Photoshop allows me to develop an eye for the next time I’m out there.
An excellent point, mrsammy7! Thanks for the post….
What you are doing is making Photoshop an “extension” of your viewfinder, and learning from the PS input – – I like it….
Cheers,
John 🙂