Saturday, July 31, 2010

Untouched by Photoshop #1

I was watching some videos from famous nature photographer Moose Peterson the other day, and he emphasized how he only presents what is captured in camera -- minimal postprocessing and no major Photoshop work. When you think about the subject matter, it really makes sense. I've been known to take some liberties with an image -- cloning, compositing, use of brushes, etc. So I thought I'd challenge myself and go back through some of my bird photos and present some here with no Photoshop work, just camera raw adjustments. Here's the first: a pair of pelicans flying in Galveston.

3 comments:

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  2. Getting back to basics almost always turns on the light for most people. We tend to spend so much time with presentation that we forget about the joy of just posting what you shot.

    I think over time we have set ourselves up for failing to meet our own expectations of what the final should look like, rather than showing what we actually saw when we pressed the shutter. Part of that is taking the time to ensure the scene is free from intruding elements and composing it as a final shot, not as one to be worked on later.

    I like the simple nature of this shot. There is a nice diagonal with the foreground bird's wings and then the slightly out of focus bird in the background taking us out of the photo. They also combine to create another angle across the photo.

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  3. Have you been out in the heat a little too much? :) What an interesting departure for you, and quite a challenge. I agree with Doug that to shoot in such a way as to not require any post processing takes a lot more time at the beginning, when composing and getting the exposure in the camera perfect....something I have rarely if ever done! And this bird image is very successful --- interesting composition, depth of field, background, exposure. Very nice!

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