No Post Processing

It is one of my habits to scan through other photographer’s websites, meetup, facebook, and etc. In so doing, I came across some statements that many professional photographers would find ridiculous and even laughable.

Such is the case when I discovered a certain meetup that many amateur photographers , including the leader thereof, that believe post processing is usually not performed by “world-class photographers” and that shooting from the camera only, without any post processing is the milestone of a photographer.

Ironically, the same meetup group raves about the works of Ansel Adams. This is when it becomes comical. Ansel Adams post processed every exhibited print. He spent countless hours post processing his wonderful images. And I can go so far to say that he predicted and welcomed the age of electronic imaging in the last year of his life. It is easy to say that he would be a huge Photoshop user if alive today; this is not a supposition.

One amateur photographer, having spent and wasting nearly $4,000 in personal liberal instruction and various classes, suggested, “Obviously shooting straight out of the camera is best provided that is what you wish to achieve as a photographer…” I suggest that a professional photographer would want to produce images that are artistic renditions of their subject and in order to achieve this one has to post produce their images.

The “fearless leader” of this meetup group contends, “If we were all world-class photographers, we wouldn't use post-processing…” I can only surmise from this statement whereby the photographer who brought his works to the forefront as a creation of an art form, the great Ansel Adams, is not considered a “world-class photographer” because of his extensive post production of his photographs. Ridiculous!

Now, there are suggestions that this same meetup group, sponsoring a photo exhibit/contest, will change the rules so that post production will not be allowed.

There is probably cause as to why the steering committee of this amateur photography meetup group along with the “fearless leader” is adamant about the usage of post production. Most of their members are not adept to post processing; they are intimidated. There are the hidden agendas. And for the minority who are keen to using post processing, who are serious amateurs or professionals, and those who are much more inclined to produce photographic art by means of post processing, they are being reduced to the level of the amateurs of the steering committee.

As a professional photographer, I use Photoshop and other plug-ins for 99.9% of my shown photos. Post production allows me to change highlights, shadows, and dark areas. It allows me to make color correction changes. And, it allows for modifications to enhance one’s portrait appearance. A while back, I was a member of this meetup group and always advocated the use of post processing. This is one of the several reasons why I no longer participate with this particular meetup.

I know for a fact that the National Geographic photographers or “world-class photographers” have their submitted digital images sent to the graphic department where post processing is implemented on every image so as to enhance and create images ready for hard copy and internet production.

My forte is weddings and portraits. All of my portraits are post processed. And all of my wedding images go through batch processing in Photoshop and then selectively enhanced with NIK software. If I performed in the manner and belief system of this particular amateur meetup group, I’d be out of business in short order. No post processing? It’s nonsense!