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OK, so here's the deal-- I've been kicking around this idea of posting some before & after shots for a long while. I don't think most people realize how much time & effort goes into retouching digital negatives in order to get them looking like a professional-caliber final product. In fact, I get the impression that many folks assume that all of my images come right out of the camera looking the way they do. While that would certainly make my life a whole lot easier, it's unfortunately not the case at all.Yes, having a good-quality DSLR is a great start. Having nice lenses is even MORE important. However, it's what you do with the images AFTER they're captured that really matters. The critical thing to realize is that a camera is an inherently imperfect device for capturing light. I don't care how many megapixels you have-- a camera's sensor has nowhere near the capability of responding to different light intensities as the human eye does. So your camera is forced to make an intelligent guess as to which tones in your scene should be kept and which should be dropped. What this essentially means is that the resulting images will always pale in comparison to what you originally saw when you looked through the lens and pressed the shutter. That bright, colorful sunset that was so strikingly beautiful when you saw it in person will always look washed out, flat, and just plain dull when you compare it to the image your camera ultimately gives you.
However, through the magic of Photoshop, it is possible to bring back some of that lost charm, and restore an image to somewhere near the way it looked in real life. Over the next few weeks I'm going to be trying out a new concept on this blog by posting some "Before & After" images. Based on the response I get, I may also decide to share the steps I took in post-production to achieve the final result.
Anyways, since I used the example of a sunset above, I'll start with an image that I took while on vacation in Hawaii last month. One of the first things you'll notice is how blown-out the sky is in the unprocessed version of the image. To get around the fact that my camera's sensor could only properly expose either the sky or the foreground (but not both), I took several shots, each with different settings. I ended up with a collection of images of the same scene, and in each one a different part of the scene was properly exposed. By selectively blending these different versions of the image together in Photoshop, along with a dash of contrast, a sprinkle of saturation, and sharpening to taste, I was able to produce the final image.
Enjoy, and please leave me a comment if you dig this "Before & After" concept! :-)
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3 comments:
Yeah Russ, I'm one of those who thought your pictures came out that way. I had no idea that you had to do so much to them. No wonder my pictures don't come out so good...
I may learn something about photography from these blogs!
trish
Great job Russ! Good idea to take 2 pictures at different exposures. I would never have guessed that's what ypu did.
Wonderful work, Next time I'm out I'll have to remember to capture both and use the merger to create a master piece. Love the before and after!
~Melissa
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