I post process therefore I can't take a good photo.

[stsinner]

You are officially my favorite person today!

You like hateful people... That's neat.

 

[stsinner]

You appear to be trying to annoy people.

You take photos to record what you see, as you see it. You are almost completely alone in this forum. There are mainly two types of people in the world who shoot the way you insist:

1. Emotionally detached photographers recording a sterile documentation of their surroundings, like a crime scene photographer or geologist.

2. Rank amateurs.

I don't think you're a geologist or work for the government...

You're right, oh hateful one. I aim to get good at photography, not distorting reality. Guess that makes me a perpetual amateur..

If I'm alone in this forum, maybe that's why I couldn't get my christmas photos right with the advice here-I was trying to get them right out of the camera. I guess everyone else would have just Photoshopped their kids into the shot.. Not my style.

Now I'll just politely bow out of this conversation and concentrate on learning my camera, not manipulating the images that come out of it... Let the slings and arrows fly....

 

[Overread]

lets leave the fight to pms shall we people - come on its a new year!

As for what we have here its a difference of opinion - there is no right way to take photos just the way that gets you the results that you want. If that is really overdone HDR or family snapshots then that is your choice and its no right of others to tell you that its not right to shoot as such.

However one has to accept that the tools at ones use are not perfect nor that every possible shot can be achived through the camera alone. Wind the clock back and in the film days you could not get a photo out of a camera without procesing it first until we got the instand Polaroid cameras. DSLRs are like the polaroid - they let you get a photo straight out of the camer without any need for editing - however you have to accept that the photo is already edited by the cameras own built in editing programs.

The RAW file is processed by the camera into a JPEG with the cameras own idea of white balance, sharpness, contrast, noise, sharpening etc.. applied to the shot. This is great for some, but on a forum dedicated to photography quality is something that many aspire to and one way to increase quality is to edit a shot yourself out of the camera with more powerful and specific editing tools.

Also a camera is not able to shoot everything nor is it perfect - that is why people combine images and such to try and work around the limitations that the equipment has - its also common that many photos edited are contrast and saturation boosted to look more arty and less realistic. This does not have to be your end result and its fully possible to edit shots to look natural.

 

[abraxas]

You're right, oh hateful one. I aim to get good at photography, not distorting reality. Guess that makes me a perpetual amateur..

If I'm alone in this forum, maybe that's why I couldn't get my christmas photos right with the advice here-I was trying to get them right out of the camera. I guess everyone else would have just Photoshopped their kids into the shot.. Not my style.

If you want to get what you want, the way you want, then work at that. Don't let frustration and personalities distract you. This is the beginning of a sad downward spiral that's a waste of everyone's time, including yours. Many photographers here learned about photography long before there was an internet.

There are many types of photography. I've seen some excellent right out of the camera work that was just posted today in fact. I've also seen some excellent work that was developed with photoshop, that was just posted today in fact.

Also, I like to think I've produced some decent images that document geology and geomorphics as well as being some damn fine landscapes. Likewise with botanical documentation.

I had an interesting conversation with a forensic photographer Christmas Eve, and a look-see at some vacation photos of a place I've never been to before on a cell phone. These two photographers were very excited about their work, as much as I am mine.

Play your own game, do your own homework and depend on yourself to provide for yourself.

[/rant]

 

[table1349]

lets leave the fight to pms shall we people - come on its a new year!

Dang, I looked at the time of your post, added 6 hours for the time difference and realized that you were right, it is the new year in the UK.

Happy New Years. :smileys::cheers:

 

[Jklersy]

I have finally reached the end of this thread and I have to say it makes me feel much better knowing that Im not doin something wrong when I adjust my contrast and WB and a Little exposure tweek here and there. I was really getting frustrated, wondering how on earth can I really get what I want strait out of my camera. I used to do it with my 35mm Elan 7. Then someone said that the camera store where I get my film developed PP for me. That had never accured to me, I bet they would brighten up a pic a bit or colour correct slightly for me. I was really started to get put off by always having to shoot in raw and PP every pic just a little before saving the jpeg. Thanks for started this thread and thanks for all the honest opinions, it really has eased my mind a bit.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!