Post Processing: how important and how much time do you devote to it ?

[raytoei]

I don't do all that much...but have started exploring it. As you know, in B&W, the usual suspects are:

Dodge and Burn,
Contrast and Brightness
and spotting.

Here is an example of PP to the extreme, how a Malay girl turns into a Chinese Mei Mei...

Malay Girl http://photos.modelmayhem.com/photos/111101/02/4eafbaadefc20.jpg
Chinese Mei Mei http://photos.modelmayhem.com/photos/111014/07/4e9847b4015a5.jpg

Full portfolio...

So all your film users out there, how much do you PP ? and do you spend alot of time doing it ?

 

[pikapig]

i normally crop, align the horizon and adjust the brightness..i tend not to touch de colors and contrast so that the pic will better portray the characteristic of the negative. Try not to sharpen the images too much so as to portray the lens capability...In the past, i will try to add vignet, now seldom do it...

But at times, there are some pictures that are so important or wasted because of the flaws of negative..like for example a portrait shot destroyed by dirt and scratches...for such i will do some pp to correct them.

Im a lazy person when come to pp, that is oso the reason why i switched from digital to film...My photoshop has been used less than 20 times...i tend to use a freeware call photoscape for these above adjustment since its easier and faster to use.

But i don disagree to pp of films picture...People just want to a nice photo...and every photo deserve to be nice...if you can get it nicely done with just raw...then there is no need for pp...

 

[newghost]

I try not to pp as far as possible unless I really have to in order to save a less-than-ideally taken shot, probably minor cropping, tweak the curves slightly and a little bit of vignetting that's it... this is especially true on film, like pikapig mentioned, to retain the original characteristics of the film used!

Nothing against PP and nothing against HCB!

 

[artspraken]

i usually pp to add contrast because after scanning my images always look flat.

 

[paapoopa]

i usually pp to add contrast because after scanning my images always look flat.

because you need to set your white and black point when you are scanning, if not, your photos will look flat.
than you will have to do that in pp...

all the pros here, correct me if i am wrong.



for me, i dont like to pp and like to see it raw as well...
just did the usual, adjust level, sharpen, resize and once a while crop and dodge/burn....

 

[anerjee]

for b&w, my main step is adjusting contrast.

for color, I sometimes have to remove color cast, as well as adjust contrast. I do not like to do my pp when scanning, so my scans look flat.

here is where I get my scanning ideas from: Scanning black and white film with the Nikon LS-8000

 

[enivre]

I find it odd that people refuse to post process film photos.

How do you think negatives were printed back in the days? Just flat, with no input from the printer? If you've done or read about dark room processes you would know that printing was a big part of image making.

Printing in the darkroom was (is) very very time consuming (I used to have one), now that it has gone digital it saves us a lot of time but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do ANYTHING to your photographs. IMHO, post processing is a necessary step to get the most out of your photograph.

But if you are referring to all out photo manipulation, then that's another story. I used to do it all the time for work purposes, but never once have I used it on my own personal photos. Different approaches for different types of photography, neither is right or wrong.

 

[Benji77]

I find it odd that people refuse to post process film photos.

Different approaches for different types of photography, neither is right or wrong.

You have answered yourself here
If the shot looks good (to the shooter) straight from the scanner/neg, who is to say they are 'refusing to post process'?.

 

[dtohs]

Good thread, I've always been curious to see what is everybody's tolerance to PP. I see some of us made PP sounds like a crime..
For me 10% shooting, 90% PP. (True criminal..)

 

[raytoei]

this girl doesn't need photoshop as she actually looks like this, post-op.

Jacqueline Koh; fashion, beauty & the glamorous life

i think she is a real-life anime..

incredible...

 

[NazgulKing]

The very act that you scan your film is itself an act of postprocessing...

 

[enivre]

The very act that you scan your film is itself an act of postprocessing...

Actually a good scan should not alter the inherent information of the original film (although in practice this is very hard if not impossible to achieve). So technically it's not really post processing, it's just digitizing an analog media into a digital one.

 

[NazgulKing]

Actually a good scan should not alter the inherent information of the original film (although in practice this is very hard if not impossible to achieve). So technically it's not really post processing, it's just digitizing an analog media into a digital one.

You still have to spend time tweaking the scanner settings. Nevermind that sometimes, the scanner has to be tweaked to cope with different lighting situations (i.e. white balancing)