Workshop Experience : Semester B Week 5 Digital Lab

I have always found the lab sessions that are part of our course the hardest. I know my way around a computer ok and I can learn software programs like LR and PS enough to be dangerous - and thats the issue I have - I dont know if I want to get good at post processing because its a big black beautiful hole that I could find myself getting lost in forever!

The power of post is amazing in todays age of excellent applications and awesome user interfaces. Couple with the large amount of raw (RAW) data that you can capture from even an entry level DSLR, and bingo - you have the recipe for hours and hours of processing fun and betterment. Maybe.

With even my limited exposure to photography, getting it "right" in camera was one of the early doctrines I try to live by when capturing images. And even if it isn't right, live with it and improve the next time, and the next. So learning my way around Lightroom (LR) perfectly matched this view - LR is powerful enough to do some funky things, but easy enough to do just basic adjustments and then move on.

Now that I am getting more and more exposure to Photoshop CC (PS) I am understanding more the amazing array of adjustment and enhancement capabilities we can now deploy, if we know how and where to apply them.

And that is the balance I suppose - we all see images that have been pushed way too far in post, over worked with the clarity slider or way too much contrast for the image, or dodged and burnt in to pixel heaven - but there is a style in that as well and in the right hands and pen/mouse, works.

I will continue to try and get my head around all the power that is within PS and in particular for landscape and environmental images, will use these skills to hopefully improve the image overall.

Below are some before and afters using just entry level PS capabilities - Tonal Adjustment Layers, Masking, and Dodge and Burn.