Why Post-processing Images Has Always Been an Integral Part of Photography

Why Post-processing Images Has Always Been an Integral Part of Photography
ФОТО: digitalrev.com

When you look at the world, your eyes and brain work together to give you about 14-20 stops of dynamic range. That means the difference between the highlights and the shadows that you are perceiving right now equate to 14-20 camera stops.

Each stop is a doubling of the light level.

It is thought that the average modern D-SLR camera can capture around 10 stops of dynamic range before clipping, or losing detail. This might explain, in part, why photos straight from the camera often fail to live up to a view that seemed spectacular at the time.

Post-processing has always existed as a means of replicating what the eye can see and the camera sometimes can't.

Also, automatic camera metering attempts to average out the lights and dark in a scene. That means if you shoot just a black card with automatic metering on, the camera will attempt to make it grey. If you shoot just a white card, the exact same thing will happen. You will end up with two grey shots that look the same.

Image by Kimon Maritz

What this essentially means is that a camera’s dynamic range is no match for the human eye, so shots taken straight out of camera are rarely a good representation of what the photographer saw. The camera doesn’t know what you are trying to shoot, or how you want it to look.

As such, post-processing has always been an integral part of photography. Phrased in a more inflammatory way, you could say that photographers who believe in “getting it right in camera” have only learned half of their trade.

Post-processing before digital didn’t look all that different to how it looks how. Adobe Bridge was a contact sheet, but the thumbnails looked more or less the same. You would study the thumbnails, choose which ones to post process, then start the second half of the job. You even used a loupe, which looked much like it does now.

A machine called an enlarger would project your image onto photographic paper. You would start with a base exposure that would work for the majority of the frame. You would dodge by using a small paddle to block light in certain places. These areas would be less exposed, which made them look lighter. The paddle even looked a little like a brush and the act of painting was almost the same: the more you “brushed” the stronger the dodge effect.

Image by Flash Bros

The opposite, known as burning, was next next step. You would expose part of the frame again, which would make it darker. To ensure the rest of the frame wasn’t affected, you would mask it with your hand. That’s why the Photoshop icon is a hand making a small circle through which light can pass. It was done by hand, just as it is today.

Next you would apply what was essentially a Levels Adjustment with a Layer Mask in Photoshop, or a Graduated Filter in Lightroom, to achieve a gradual darkening of the sky. This could be done by moving a piece of card back and forth under the enlarger.

Image by Simon Matzinger

Sharpening could be done with a grain magnifier, which would help you to get a sharper image than you would tend to achieve with the naked eye. Of course there were plenty of options for cutouts and composites. The Cottingley Fairy photos are a famous example of this.

All of this work was hands on and creative. These were skills a photographer would hone over time and that would enable her to create images with a truer dynamic range, that better represented what she saw and felt when she pressed the shutter button. Perennial example Ansel Adams developed his own film, he didn’t send his negatives to a photo lab and hope for the best.

So the next time somebody tells you they like to get it right in camera, consider sending them a link to this article. And remember that in a way, they’re lucky: their photographic journey is only just beginning.

Title image by Adam Kool

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2017-6-23 03:00

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