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This is one of my favourite photographs, by one of my favourite photographers. To my untrained eye, everything about this picture is perfect. There is a stillness to the picture, but at the same time, one's eye moves over it from left to right, and then back again. The stately old barn is all that is left of the homestead, and it tells a story of days long gone. I love the dead, windblown grass in the foreground.
When the photographer had the photo developed, he was told he could tweak the snow and make it whiter, using Photoshop. His reaction was ... "No." Why would anyone want to do that to this wonderful picture? If you look at the snow, it is actually filled with colours -- blues, browns, even some greens. Tweaking the snow to make it whiter would turn the photograph into a ghastly Thomas Kincaid picture. Sometimes less is more.
Photoshop is a wonderful program, I'm sure, but I think it has ruined more photographs than it has improved them. Folks tweak perfectly wonderful photographs until they are shades of greens, yellow and pinks that do not exist in nature. Sometimes more is just ... garish.
To me, this photograph is lovely, and what you see is what you get. Photographers don't need Photoshop to make their photos better.
I tend to agree. I can understand using photoshop on portraits of people, but sometimes nature is just beautiful in itself.
ReplyDeleteI try the photoshop on some of mine and see that it changed the colors too much. I kind of like what the camera captured and I don't think perfecting it works that well. Unless it is a shot that I took through a window. The contrast button can take away that problem of grayed views.
ReplyDeleteI know what you are saying but poor photographers like me need all the help we can get.
ReplyDeleteI don't use Photoshop but I couldn't exist without the "straighten" feature in iPhoto. Everything I capture lists to the right. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have never really used it but enjoy simple fixes via Picasa - keeps a simple blonde like me happy for hours xxxx lol
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you crossed out the word "ghastly" when mentioning Mr. T. Kincaid's work. Not strong enough ... lol.
ReplyDeletePhotoshop is a great tool for restoration and re-touching damaged images but otherwise, I totally agree with you!
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