Yes or No ?!
I will admit that in the early days of digital photography, I was very slow to edit any of my photographs as I felt that I was perhaps “cheating” a little and had that little voice in the back of my head saying “the camera never lies” so what I took is what you see !
Today, however, my mindset has changed and I now look at the editing tool like an artists palette, where I can enhance or change something within my photograph that will help produce an image that I am happy with.
Outside of the general editing tools, such as cropping and correcting the exposure, I sometimes like to “play” with all the other options that are available to me within my editing programme. The resulting images are generally very different to the original photograph, so that there is no doubt that what I am showing the viewer is meant to be seen as an almost “new” image compared to the photograph taken. The experimental editing does not always work and other times it produces a photograph that appeals to me more than what I took initially. Often, they are fun or playful, while other times, I use the tools to create a different mood or story.
There are many different editing programmes out there, both free and fee paying and all have good and bad qualities to them. I like to use Picasa for most of my general editing as I find it very user friendly, it is limited but for the average photographer, I feel that it covers all the basics.
The images below, are from a new project that I am currently working on, with a working title “Porthole Collection”. The first photograph was taken through the porthole which had a buoy hanging outside the window. I have cropped and used the editing tool “polarise” to create the effect that you see in the final image. I felt that the photograph as it stood was just a little to bland, but that by trying something different it has created a more interesting and fun final photograph.
The second image is very different again, here I have used the “drawing” edit tool to give the feel of an ink painting. Again, I feel this particular choice of post-production has resulted in a more interesting final image.
So my advice is to go and have some “fun” with your editing tools, you just never know what you may discover or create. The key idea that I have to remind myself is that photography is a wonderful medium to capture the world but that it does not always have to be serious and to enjoy the process of creating a new image.
Slan
Aisling
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