Confidence Wobble

[riffraff]

This is the kind of post we see regularly from someone new to photography who hasn't learned LR/PS. It is often accompanied with calling editing "cheating" like there are rules somewhere. It's called "photography" not cameraography and the goal is the final image. But as said above, learn to get it as much in camera, but in many cases, your vision of the shot will go beyond that and it is perfectly ok. In painting there was the Realism school, but then there was the Impressionists or the surrealists who departed from aping what was in front of the artist, photographers making art do the same. It is possible to make impressionistic photos and during the teens and 20's, there were active surrealist photographers. As a beginner, you are expecting a photo to ape what is in front of it. Yes, that can be done, but to the extent the photographer departs from that is ok, there are no rules prohibiting it and not only is it not "cheating" it is creating an image instead of using the camera like a xerox machine. I always suggest beginners check out Kelby training for Light room. Once you learn how your image can be improved beyond anything the camera can do, I have yet to see a beginner who abandoned post. In fact, they usually start out jacking saturation so much none of the colors resemble anything in nature. Not that that is "wrong" but is certainly gets boring if all that is done.

Never crossed my mind to consider it cheating. What I did think was the original image was one I’d delete, discard, not even download it from the camera. It completely floored me what was done to the image. Thanks for the training suggestion I’ll check it out.

 

[mrca]

20 years ago I struggled to get up to speed on photoshop. Tried 2 books and failed. Signed up for Kelby and in a few days was up and running and a month or two later, felt was competent with it. I would start with Lightroom, it was designed for photographers, photoshop, was not. Kelby has classes on setting up your computer for it, overview beginner classes then you can dive into classes on specific parts of it. The classes will teach you how to see areas in your images that can be improved then how to improve them. You mention composition and focus. A good image starts with a reason for taking it, using the camera/lens controls to maximize it, lighting, composition and post processing. Try studying each of those areas. Kelby has classes on each, including your camera, lens selection, lighting both natural and artificial, and his initial expertise, post processing.

 

[TanBrae]

Take note of my siggy!

I get tired of seeing, in my opinion, overly processed images. While they can be stunning, what is wrong with what our eyes actually see? (Or, as close to it.) One of the FB groups I am in, there is one member who very seldom posts an image that isn't unnatural - she always adds saturation, almost to the point of over-doing it. Often times, I live in the same area as where some images are depicting, and I haven't seen what they are showing - usually it is sunsets - so brilliant, when all I saw was a "normal" sunset. I know they have to be adding a lot of saturation.

So, go. Shoot! Have fun, and don't worry about what others shoot or think.

 

[mrca]

Tanbrae, when digital arrived with photoshop and HDR was available, an oversaturated HDR image became a cliche and in a couple of years, it faded pun intended. But it reared it's ugly head about 10 years later. When new photographers start with photoshop/lr, saturation is something that lets them start expressing their creativity. Hopefully, they expand their creativity beyond it.