Ronny Gabriels Photography

Everybody who has every read a forum or a blog about photography will have probably come across this question.  There are a lot of photographers who say post-production is just a part of photographing, others say that as little post-production as possible should be used.  Of course, it’s easy nowadays.  Before digital photography, post-production meant you had to have integrate knowledge about developing film, enlargers, etc.  Now, in the digital age, post-production is all about software like photoshop.  And let’s just say it’s quite a bit more accessible for everybody.

Now comes the part were I, wether you like it or not, am going to tell you my view on the subject.  And keep in mind, it’s just MY view.  Attach as much value to it as you want.

First of, I don’t think this is a question.  Not considering post-production would be wrong, whether you are a amateur or a pro.  However, and this is a big “however”, if you are an amateur, keep it to an absolute minimum.  If you a pro, do whatever the hell you want, because you problably know a lot better than I do, what post-production is and how it fits into your workflow.  But for the amateur it’s a different thing.  In my own experience, post-production can help you to save an otherwise lost shot.  The result might still be great and you can still be proud of the photo.  But I can’t tell you how much happier and proud I am when that “perfect” shot comes straight out of the camera.

I have seen raw shots that were almost black, turned into pretty good photos using photoshop and other tools, but is that what it’s all about?  Sure, it can happen that you get this one-in-a-lifetime shot, that for some reason doesn’t quite cut it.  By all means, run that through photoshop to save the shot.  But don’t count on photoshop to make good photographs.  First try to make the shot yourself.  Keep at it until it finally works.  You’ll see that the resulting photograph might be exactly the same as the photoshop one, but you’ll be a thousand times more proud that you can actually shoot that.  For instance, there are tools that can produce a beautiful sunset out of a mediocre sunset photograph. Great! I propose you take the time to make a decent sunset shot.  Even if the colours are not as vibrent as the one you produced with the tool, I would still like the shot I made myself a hundred times more, and I’m almost sure that most amateurs feel the same way. 

Of course, this is only my view on the subject, but ask yourself this question.  If you spend twice as much time post-producing your photographs than actually shooting them, shouldn’t you be into graphic design, instead of photography?  I know there are notable exceptions, especially amateurs who have a certain artistic vision will use post-production to make their photographs comply with that vision.  But the rest of you, try making the shot you want with a camera instead of with photoshop!