Go from blah to bam!

I talk about the art of post-processing images frequently and I believe doing so is worthy of repetition. Many so-called photography purists love to talk about the work of masters such as Ansel Adams. So let me do so. A quote from Ansel Adams’ book, The Print.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that we can take an inferior negative (inferior in the technical sense, but of expressive significance)and work wonders with it by imaginative printing procedures.

The Print by Ansel Adams page 2

In the digital age, we have a variety of tools available that Ansel Adams did not such as Photoshop, Lightroom, and many similar programs. Ansel Adams goes on to say:

We cannont correct poor focus, loss of detail, physical blemishes, or unfortunate compositions – but we can overcome (to some extent) such accidents as overexposure and over- or underdevelopment… The truth is that in a large body of work (even that of a photographer of great experience) there will be many printing problems and subtle variations of interpretation.

The Print by Ansel Adams page 3

Today, with programs such as Photoshop and Lightroom we can even correct physical blemishes and unfortunate compositions. To some extent, we can correct poor focus and loss of detail.

Let’s take a look at the original photograph, as captured, of the grain silos above.

Through my digital “printing” process the image above went from blah to bam! Don’t let anyone attempt to convince you that you don’t need to use post-processing or “digital manipulation”. The masters often manipulated their prints they just used different tools to accomplish what we can accomplish today in the digital age.