Post your photographs

I never said it did, I only changed the colour of the water because it was brown and didn't look nice, not to get any attention for basic photoshop ability.

why post it if it didnt look "nice" then? sometimes you folk really do take the art out of photography.

I liked the shot, just not the colour of the water

just out of curiosity how would you define a photograph?

I have always edited my photographs before posting them, because though I may be happy with the composition of a shot the colours may not be well represented in the output so I edit the colours, brightness, contrast etc, sometimes just for the whole shot, sometimes specific areas. I'm sure other people here do it aswell.

I don't know why you are suddenly so interested, if indeed you actually are

if you mess with all the colours, sharpness, whatever, to make it look prettier than the actual shot itself then the finished product is not really your work. i just think it devalues photography in general because you'll be thinking 'oh sod it, ill just edit it later,' rather than trying really hard to get that 'perfect picture'.

(i dont think ive explained that too well. hope you get the jist.)

thats irrelevant.

I agree with Panama (good god)

There's far too many people on deviantart (or however you spell it arggh) that take a pretty crap picture, then just photoshop it into something "artistic"... I never alter any pictures I take, if its a crap picture its a crap picture. If I'm a shit photographer, bugger I'm just going to have to get over it..rather than enhance all my pics artificially

I understand what you mean, but I'm not in that mindset when taking photo's, I don't just randomly snap a shot and then just hope it turned out good later.

When I'm out somewhere taking photo's I always try my best to get a shot, be it having to climb something or lie down, might look odd to someone passing but if it gets a better shot I'll do it. I mess with my focus, exposure, apeture, whatever I can do in the situation to get the best shot possible.

It is only afterwards that I sometimes have to edit them. I very rarely crop my shots because I think of that when taking them such that I frame them just how I think they look best. The only things I do edit tend to be the colour levels, if something came out looking too pale/too colourful, or perhaps the sun was shining down my lens and the foreground is too dark and needs bringing up a little.

To me the editing part is just as involved as actually taking the shot. When I take a shot I see what is going to be in my photo, but I might even at the time think that the colour isn't right or something, and if it is something that I can actually change by moving around, changing a camera setting, then I'll do it then and there, otherwise I have little choice but to leave it until later.

It is only within the past few months that I've really become more interested in photography and if I could afford it I'd get a much more professional camera, one that would allow me to change more settings and get the exact shot I want, but for now all I can do is edit them later if need be.

Just as a couple of examples here are 2 shots I have taken recently, the originals on the left and the photoshopped versions on the right.


This one was just a little pale since it was a dull day so I brightened it a little and turned up the contrast slightly, and as I wanted to emphasize the details of the leaf I sharpened it too.


With this one I took about a dozen shots at different exposures, just trying to get the clouds how I wanted them to look, but they still came out pale, so afterwards I simply turned up the contrast and enhanced the blue and cyan a little.

Yeah but thats not the picture you took is it?

If the day is too dull, come back on a brighter day! Patience grasshopper!


Getting a perfect shot is a combination of things, no small part perhaps luck. To me personally if you have to fiddle around with it afterwards its not your shot anymore