Photo enhancement...

[keller]

I've been looking to a bunch of photography websites lately. I've got that camera bug and I am just fascinated by everything that goes with taking pictures and such.


My question is...


a lot of thepictures i see on these websites the photosare screaming with bright colors. And most of the time the subject's skin color is a very bright white. Do people actually prefer this/these enhancements? Do people ever think it looks unnatural to have bright colors screaming out of the picture?


Just curious...


keller

[clemmb]

I prefer acurate skin tone in portraits.


Mark

[TheRoff]

<p class="MsoNormal"]IMHO:<span> Photography is
an art and photographers are artists.<span>
Some like to portray the scene as accurately as possible, others use their
mind&rsquo;s eye and do a lot of post processing.<span>
It&rsquo;s all up to the individual, and of course the viewer.<span> Some photographs I like and some I don&rsquo;t.<span> That doesn&rsquo;t make one photo better than
another.<span>
<p class="MsoNormal"]Personally I don&rsquo;t like to do a lot of post processing on my
photos.<span> I think a lot of digital photographers
way over use the saturation function and sharpness function.<span> I like to try to get it in the view finder
the way I want to see it.<span> I may crop a
bit, adjust the exposure and clone out some small thing, but that is about
it.<span> Then again, look at some of the
greats. <span>Ansel Adams, for one, was a
master in the dark room.<span> All personal
preference.<span>
<p class="MsoNormal"]Larry

[Daniel Browning]

Do people actually prefer this/these enhancements?


Yes. Most do prefer them. Digicam manufacturers have fine tuned image processing over the years to closely match what will get a majority of consumers to like a photograph: overexposed, oversaturated, oversharpened, and the contrast boosted into the atmosphere.

[Sean Setters]

I'm with TheRoff on this one. Most of the pictures in my flickr photostream ("http://www.flickr.com/photos/budrowilson/) have gone through Photoshop, but for most of them, it isn't obvious. Crop, clone, dodging and burning, and maybe some slight sharpening if needed. I try to do transparent editing--so the viewer doesn't see the editing, but rather the picture I captured (or tried to, more or less). Every now and then I go a bit over-the-top, but it's quite rare, I believe.

[Alan]

I agree that photographers are more like artists. Ansel Adams said he wanted his photos to be what he felt they should be.


It's about effect, not necessarily accuracy.


Ask any wedding photographer.

[keller]

Thanks for the replies. I thought it was interesting, so i had to ask for other opinions. I was justwondering whateveryone's thoughts wereofturquoise grass and bright white faces.


I never really thought about photographers being artist, but they truely are. Me, i just take pictures of family events just to preserve the memories.


Hey Daniel, on your sample photos that you post in your reviews. Do you do a lot of enhancing? I really like the way those photos look.


keller

[RBarrz]

I like to enhance some of my photos to give it an "artsy" look but not too extreme. But what I may like you may not and I am no means a professional or submit to contests but I do it for me it is th first hobby I really really enjoy and it helps me unwind after a long day at work....so if I'm bored I'll crop clone add noise B+W HDR sharpen some photos to get at least another perspective of the shot as well as brush up on CS4 a little. My 2c.

[Colin]

I tend to like to push things to the point that they're not obviously unbelievable.


With subjects we're familiar with, like people, that's more difficult, and, I think, I keep things on the more accurate side. Less color saturation boost, if any, tone curve adjustments are modest and more lighting-related.


However, if I've got something for which we have no common experience, so long as I'm not actually clipping a color channel, or it's not becoming absurd, I like to push it to make it pop. Not to the point of distracting, but so it's more 'interesting' than if you just looked at it.


Then again, even though it's now calibrated, my laptop monitor changes color balance depending on the altitude of my head, so who knows what other people are seeing...


My CRT calls from the basement....

[Colin]

I tend to like to push things to the point that they're not obviously unbelievable.


With subjects we're familiar with, like people, that's more difficult, and, I think, I keep things on the more accurate side. Less color saturation boost, if any, tone curve adjustments are modest and more lighting-related.


However, if I've got something for which we have no common experience, so long as I'm not actually clipping a color channel, or it's not becoming absurd, I like to push it to make it pop. Not to the point of distracting, but so it's more 'interesting' than if you just looked at it.


Then again, even though it's now calibrated, my laptop monitor changes color balance depending on the altitude of my head, so who knows what other people are seeing...


My CRT calls from the basement....