Day by day I stumble upon a sentence so popular by many photographers – “Straight from the camera”, a.k.a. “As is”. Almost complete portfolios stamped with a same sentence.
I started to think of all the possible reasons artist would have to put such a remark.
So far the list looks like this:
1) Level of the photographic mastery achieved
2) Allergy to digital pixel editing
3) ?
4) ?
Suddenly I have started to evoke some memories and lines read at various books covering the subject of photography. As I remember, even great masters of photography like Ansel Adams, used developing darkroom techniques to get the results they were after.
The final product was always a mixture or photographic result combined with the technique used during the development process. Now correct me if I am wrong but modern digital cameras are rarely set-up to produce perfect photos straight from the camera. More than anything, within reasonably correct exposure they represent a worthy material to be fine tuned in the digital darkroom. Shooting raw and even more potential is at our disposal. You do not want to use aggressive in camera algorithms just to make great “As is” photo, when most probably you can do much better after a slight post processing touch.
A small digression now, some months ago i have submitted a couple of photos to the corporate calendar contest that was about to be produced. Luckily, the people who considered my photos worthy selected 4 from the 5 I have submitted to be included in the calendar. The calendar was a great success, printed in some 2.000 copies, and even received some external recognition and exposure. But the reason that I am sharing this lines with you is not to brag about the calendar success, but instead to tell you about a small discussion with some of the people who also had a photo accepted. They, as a ‘native’ photographers questioned the use of Photoshop and other imaging tools telling that every photo can be successful that way !
I can hardly agree with that sentence, and we all know that the one’s who “loose” have all the rights to be angry, but c’mon people, aren’t most of the photos in the pre-printing color-corrected, with adjusted sharpness, contrast and brightness settings, depending on the machine and person used to process them? Even the photos of the other submitters from the calendar project got the needed impact by contrast and saturation boosting, they didn’t even seem to notice :)
So at the end I was proud to say that each and every of the photos I have submitted was digitally enhanced to the extent I considered needed (I am not speaking about photo-montages here).
So at the end of this long write up, what are the conclusions.
For me, do whatever you want with your artwork and i will respect it regardless of the methods used. If it makes me say Wow, i will say so. If you can do it straight from the camera, i salute you, if you do a marvelous post processing, than i will also admire your photography and also the skills and time you have invested to developed even more remarkable artwork.
Just please do not tell me that when some out-of-the worldy razor sharp macro and other photos that you make, with the color pallet not matched in our cyber space do occur, that you exclusively produce them “As is” (do you use a tripod by the way or your hand holding technique is also flawless :)), as we all know how easy is to get the job done.
For a couple of photos i may just take your word for it, but for the complete “As is” portfolios, well consider me skeptic here.
And if you do not like Photoshop or learning new ways to improve your technique, please do not tell me that it is a wrong approach. It is like you do not accept to use a PC, because pen and paper, or abacus or typewriter machine are doing a better job.
It also makes me wonder why the hell you are using internet where there are still some good old conservative ways to share your work with the outer world without entering a digital era you already do not like !
P.S. Not to be wrongly interpreted, I appreciate all the efforts one makes to learn as long as we are alive, so I think it is wise to use whatever makes our life easier.
P.P.S. A big salute to the photographers who really are able to make their “Straight from the camera” photos so stunning as they are, as far my own are concerned, I swear that 99% of them are digitally enhanced ! But I will continue working on my technique as much the time allows, so even if I do not make “As is” remark, i just may post some that came to the existence that way :)-————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
As one of my most successful photos of all times, this photo was a bit cropped and rotated since i did not succeed to make a perfect horizontal “from the hand” alignment. The photo is also digitally converted to monochrome, since this way it conveys much more of the mood I wanted to preserve and remember.
George Swann
Excellent piece of writing Milos, nothing wrong in using the digital darkroom, I am always happy to use any tool available to make even the smallest change to an image, so that in the end I finish up with a more pleasing finished piece of work. I can hardly remember an image that I have shot, that has been perfect straight out of the camera.
Milos Markovic:
Halo George, i appreciate your effort to go through this “small” write up of mine :)
I have to agree with you and the workflow i usually perform is meant to enhance the photo to the extent i find pleasing, either it is just a plain b&w conversion or a multi-touch sequence. Either way it is just another tool to make the photo more pleasing. If i was working as a photojournalist, rushing out to cover the action of any sort, i guess that i would also try now and then to make some more impact to the final piece, but this way when doing it for my own “feel good approach” i will do it almost it every time !
Steve Sharp
A fine impassioned rant Milos! My thoughts tend to coincide with yours; there seems a certain kind of elitism at work here, as if the photographer who claim ‘as shot’ all the time, or ‘no post-processing’ are somehow saying that they are the better photographers. The digital darkroom is just another tool at our disposal, and plays an important role in the finished product. To hint that to use photoshop somehow renders the photo less valid is just silly. Of course, there are boundaries, and everyone’s will be different; and whilst I love artworks that are clearly Photoshop creations, and are obviously not intended to be interpreted as ‘as shot’, I think a line of acceptance should be drawn at images where an element has been added, but in a way where it is intended to be assumed to be part of the original photo. This seems especially wrong when it isn’t credited; I remember seeing a photo of a castle at sunset; with the sun setting just to the left of the castle. Yet, there was strong sunlight on the castle coming from 90degrees to the left, which is quite clearly impossible! It was an obvious ‘cheat’ I think, and that kind of use of photoshop leaves me a little bit cold. But, in general, everything goes, and altering levels, curves, sharpness, crop, saturation etc, really should be a part of just about every digital photographer’s armoury.
Milos Markovic:
Somehow it just came to me, Steve :) But I see it all over so it was hard not to notice it. I guess there is a hidden genome inside of us that makes us “thirsty” to be and look better than the others, either we do it with our deeds and/or with a corresponding words.
But i promise i will continue to read everything about zone systems, lighting, exposure, photography techniques so after some time you will have my honest feedback if i can do it straight from the camera.
As for your artwork is concerned, please do not stop making such a stunning pieces even you have to do some digital editing ! nevertheless consider you the master of the trade !
Steve Sharp
Ah I’m neither master of photography nor photoshop Milos!, but I enjoy trying to get there :) Your time spent sitting on that balcony with your books seems to be paying off ;)
Milos Markovic:
I have just started Steve and the inspiration is already bursting.
Give me some more time and you will find out what the true photography really is !
P.S. Or i have caught the Sunstroke already :)
George Swann
I joined the Redbubble group As Is, but I have not yet posted an image because it would contravene the group guidlines if any adjustment was carried out. I have never yet achieved that level of perfection.
Milos Markovic:
I see what you are telling George, it just also may be the fact that you are actually being honest !
Here is one straight from the group, and i am not saying that it is not straight from the camera:
abnoba
Agreed…I like everything.. I am all about the end result. And I want the end result to be what I saw in my mind the moment I snapped the shutter. Sometimes it takes little to no editing…sometime a bit more.. and sometimes mine are edited to hell and back again. I think the old masters such as Ansel Adams would be thrilled with digital photography and the myriad of editing tools at our disposal today.
Milos Markovic:
Thank you Ruby, i think you are spot-on, the old masters had to go the hard way.
But there are also some trends to use the modern technique as least as needed for the maximum result possible. In a way to overachieve our “ancestries” or at least to meet them half way. Although really applaud to the ones able to do it properly, i also despise loud self marketing in any (“As is” included) extent. isn’t it just enough to create breathtaking work of art that people love and the creator himself is proud of. For me that is a great achievement already.
Steve Sharp
I think that this one is my only ‘as shot’ pic currently on Red Bubble; I definitely remember not doing any levels/contrast/saturation/curves adjustments to it; possibly a tiny bit of sharpening but I’m not sure. But this was the one in a hundred (or more) that I’d be happy with without some editing!
Milos Markovic:
C’mon now Steve, no editing at all, do you think i will actually believe that you were out and about at the time when golden hours had their peak and for some reason you were there with the camera. How likely is that to happen?
Well, knowing you, more than likely, luckily !
Steve Sharp
He he, actually I missed its peak by about a minute; you see that faint rainbow? As I rushed to get this, the rainbow was brilliant; but had just faded by the time I was in position! (of course, I could have photoshopped a really good rainbow into it….. ;)
Milos Markovic:
Ha, ha, brilliant, Steve !
Photoshopped, you? Naah, i wouldn’t think so, and by the way you can not photoshop the rainbow :)
P.S. is it too late by British standards to have a cup of tea or i have missed it for some min? Now seriously, it is 22:50 in my part of the world !
mrjaws
I agree with your comments Milos, in my slack research most of the ‘as is’ photos are jpegs from the camera which are indeed corrected by the cameras inbuilt processing and presented to the photographer as ready to print.
I myself shoot raw and ‘fiddle’ something I enjoy doing, I do have a lens that requires minimum PP an expensive 50-135 the colour from this lens is superb but it doesn’t stop me from ‘enhancing’ I just do less of it.
Its all about being honest with your photography, their is room for all as long as we don’t have a them and us attitude.
cheers,
John
Milos Markovic:
Thank you for your feedback, John. I really do not have anything against any of the approaches mentioned, but the thing that “provoked” me to make this write-up is persistent insisting about the way some photos came to existence. Is it really what matters or the final result and impression it makes to whoever sees it counts ?
Our intimate satisfaction with the fact we know our craft should be more than enough to make us self conscious and happy about what we do and the rest, well that is for the others to judge anyway !
amagala
Love your text and the way you point your ideas. ı entirely agree with you, i love photoshop and processing photos mostly to make them look exactly the image i have in my mind but i have to say there is something very special when you achieve a perfect shot straight from camera. So far i only have one i can remember:
“http://ih3.redbubble.net/work.2691279.7.flat,55...;
Milos Markovic:
Thank you Ana, i think the same way. But the magic is always a magic, no matter we do not know about the trick used, we still make the sigh…
P.S. Although the first link is not operational, glad to see that you have managed to link your photo. The link should be embedded between the exclamation marks in order to be embedded as a picture and if followed by “:” (colon), you can link the photo with the web page of your choice.
Cheers !
amagala
amagala
This one too:
Sorry if i’m flooding your document with messages it’s just that i can’t remember how to post my images on comments… :p
mscott207
i couldn’t have stated it any better if i had spent hours trying. it’s a totally subjective matter, but i know that i much prefer the way my work looks after a little ‘tweaking’. i’m not perfect, in any way, and neither is my work perfect straight from the camera. so be it. if it works for you, congrats. i’m thankful for capture NX2. thanks for posting this!
Milos Markovic:
Many thanks for your feedback Michael, it is always nice to know that you are not alone with the thoughts and that arguments are reasonable enough that people can relate with them. was really just speaking from the heart without any intention to make less relevant what some artists are able to achieve.
In a way this was what has been accumulated with all the time spent on the internet, following other people work and picking up many of those “As is” comments along the way :)
P.S. And i agree with you fully, a slight touch in the digital darkroom can make all the difference even if just one slider has been carefully moved for a few millimeters. But then the photo shouldn’t be tagged as “As is” !
mrjaws
I think that was also my point Milos that by stating no PP or ‘as is’ the photos are somehow ‘untainted’ by post processing, I agree that the photos whether PP or not should stand on their own and be enjoyed by our own eyes without a precondition or preconception.
cheers,
John
Steve Sharp
Hope you don’t mind me hijacking your journal again Milos, but I just wanted to post a before/after example which will hopefully show the advantage of post-processing. The original is flat, gloomy, you can just see some vignetting from the grad filter in the top left, and there are distracting elements in it. This is the original, followed by my finished version:
-
I hope this shows the benefits of some post processing in enhancing the mood; not natural maybe, but a bit of pp turned this from a ‘never to be seen again’ shot into one I was quite pleased with.
Milos Markovic:
Indeed that the difference is significant Steve, with a fine exposure you made it was good material to be worked on, and you really did a fine job of processing it.
I do not believe that something similar could be pulled-out from the camera in this case.