There is value in practicing the arcane transmutations of digital editing so those skills can be used on worthy images. Learned skills are used to make good images great or to make your visual statement abundantly clear to your audience. Making an unusable image mediocre is really a waste of time. Well, unless it’s a family snapshot of Aunt Emily at the family reunion. That can be forgiven because the audience is your family.
From almost the beginning we were taught that the less manipulation you do, the better your photograph will be. I think that was because the ability to manipulate film negatives and prints was limited, primitive and fraught with peril. Manipulating a negative was difficult and physical alterations of prints often resulted in a ruined print. I almost always made three copies of the final print "just in case" I ruined one (or two) in spotting or dry mounting the print.
With the advent of the digital darkroom, we now have almost an infinite number of ways to manipulate the digital files we capture; and we don't have to worry about ruining an image - ever. We also have an almost equal number of YouTube tutorials with tips and tricks on improving our images. “Working an image” just to use those recently learned skills is like a musician playing scales just to show off his dexterity. There is practice and there is performance. Please don’t confuse the two.
This stairway is a happy snap from the summer of 2018. It’s from Passau, Germany and I’m pretty sure this is the entry to the Museum of the Treasure of the Cathedral.
Comments