So, you’ve had a nice afternoon out with your camera and you’re sat downloading and editing them before throwing them out to the world though Flickr, Facebook, or whatever other sites you use. How do you personally go about processing your images?
Are you looking to get the maximum out of the files whilst retaining a ‘natural’ look or do you go in head first attempting to manipulate the hell out of them because, they aren’t actually any good and you think it might make them look ‘creative’ or ‘artistic’? Here’s a piece of advice for you. Don’t go for the later. As with any craft, learn to use the tools properly first.
Do you think for one minute that the great painters throughout history didn’t start out drawing the likes of fruit bowls with nothing more than a pencil, much like you and I did in art lessons in school? Of course they did! One of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen was a simple pencil sketch by Dali at a show at the Tate in Liverpool. I stood transfixed, almost in tears at the simple beauty, and sheer genius of little more than a few pencil lines – nothing more than that.
Photography is no different. You’ll end up a better photographer if you learn to do the basics well before you start hammering your images with filters and the other re-touching tools in your photo-editing software.
Dodging and burning is perhaps the most overused of all the tools at the disposal of the average photographer….
In case you didn’t know…
Dodging is the brightening of underexposed areas to show detail – for instance, to show detail in dark areas of shadows, and burning is giving more exposure to highlights in order to show detail. By way of example, to bring out cloud detail in a washed out sky caused by over-exposure of the area in the camera at the time of taking the image.
Back in the olden days as my kids refer to my youth it took several prints to get right and was done by casting shadows between the enlarger and photographic paper. It often took several attempts to get absolutely right. Nowadays, it’s done with the touch of a button and a little mouse movement, there’s no excuse for taking time and care over it.
Used wisely and properly the dodge and burn tools in your photo-editing software are arguably by far the most useful and least ‘gimmicky’. Take your time, don’t overdue it and pay close attention to accuracy and dodging and burning can enhance your images immensely.
