10 Deadly Post Processing Sins.

lhughey wrote in post #9913825
I agree with you there! I don't overdo it (i dont think), but i add a little vignette here and there. I'm will also kick up the saturation in photos when i think it looks good. In short, i stopped caring what other people thought my senior year in highschool. I say, do what you want and let the market decide if its right or wrong.

I'm going home and putting big *ss lens flairs on all of my pictures...

LOL!!! ME TOO!!!

Some insightful comments in this thread.

Shooting style can become as dated as post-processing .. just as excessive tilt screams "2007" in two or three years lens flare and TS effects will look old as well.

It's amusing that in most other artistic areas cliches and excessive effects are looked at with scorn but many photographers seem to embrace them.

Great article, but I'm sure there are alot more then those 10!

My experience:

1. Photoshop- I played around with early on, but it's so freaking complicated to use for a large series of pictures, as soon as I tried LR I got hooked. It does everything I need it to do. I'm a photographer, not a graphic artist.
2.[COLOR] Processing fads- Color or b&w for me. I get sick looking at sepia, but if the client wants it then I give it to them. For the most part I try to keep WB looking natural, I don't like when people make it look "cool" on purpose without reason.
3.Eyes- The odd photograph I'll add a bit of sharpening to the eyes, nothing crazy though.
4. Skin- Again I like to enhance a bit, remove ugly spots (blemishes) but try to keep it natural.
5. A heavy vignette- I do minor vignette alot of the time, but I don't want people to think they are looking through a tube.
6. Just say “NO” to over saturation- A friend of a friend got into DSLR and would crank up the blues and green and it looked like horrible ****. I may adjust the colors to enhance certain ones, but generally I leave the saturation slider alone.
7.Selective coloring died circa 1990.- Indeed it did! I laugh on the inside when I go to bridal shows and see photos with that garbage plastered all over their portfolio. They ruined otherwise nice B&W photos!
8.Don’t make your clients look dead. I'm not sure what they mean by this... I'm thinking it is a mixture of #2 and a few other ones. Adding soft filters and junk I guess...
9.Sunflares- I have never added any. If I get them when I take the shot I don't mind as long as it's not covering something important.
10. Textures-0 again something I don't really feel the need to do.

Over sharpening would have been worth a mention

Hear hear! Whenever I see that... and it shows up ALOT in the Glamor Forum... I think Judge Doom...

neil_r wrote in post #9925281
Over sharpening would have been worth a mention

I believe she was focusing on things that people purposely do thinking they will improve the photo. Sharpening almost always does (in theory, if done properly) improve the photo. Too many just don't know how to do it properly.

photoguy6405 wrote in post #9926580
I believe she was focusing on things that people purposely do thinking they will improve the photo. Sharpening almost always does (in theory, if done properly) improve the photo. Too many just don't know how to do it properly.

That is why I included the word "Over"

Here...knock yourself out...

https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=843364

I've only ever used selective coloring once, and I stand by the idea that it improved the shot (would've worked better if his shirt matched the table a little better though):

http://grantykins.tumb​lr.com …y-mike-d-speaking-of-this

Honestly without selective coloring the shot looks entirely uninteresting, whereas with it at least you've got the "Hey...he kinda matches the pool table" bit.

FatCat0 wrote in post #9934010
I've only ever used selective coloring once, and I stand by the idea that it improved the shot (would've worked better if his shirt matched the table a little better though):

http://grantykins.tumb​lr.com …y-mike-d-speaking-of-this

Honestly without selective coloring the shot looks entirely uninteresting, whereas with it at least you've got the "Hey...he kinda matches the pool table" bit.

I can see that, though I find the color of the shirt a little too overbearing, but I see what you're saying. It does help in this case.

photoguy6405 wrote in post #9934020
I can see that, though I find the color of the shirt a little too overbearing, but I see what you're saying. It does help in this case.

Yeah his shirt isn't exactly "pool table" green, but it's the closest he's got. The pool table also has significantly different lighting (the one that's directly behind him).

And, you know, I got lazy about fixing both of those in ACR. But that's just a minor detail :P

Thanks for all the comments folks.

6 months in and still havent done more than crop PP wise. I far prefer to take multiple shots till I get one right and I am getting better at it. I will be forcing myself to learn to white balance from RAW though, seems this is highly necessary. Messing with Lightroom 3 beta now but for it being the first real "photoshop" tool I have used I am useless at it.

Edit your shot correctly before you take it with settings

Chairman7w wrote in post #9902023
I was amused by all the comments below the article.

90% of which were, "Oh, I rarely do any PP'ing work on my photos..."

(yawn)

I am here to say I am GUILTY of all the things in that article and have a blast doing it! I'm a PP'ing whore and wouldn't trade it for anything. To me, that's half the fun.

But I'm not so arrogant or full of hubris as to tell others what they should or shouldn't do. Other than: Do what ya like and have fun!

THIS. "Satires" like this are a thinly veiled attempt to belittle other photographers. Do what you think looks good, if someone else doesn't like it (and they aren't paying you), who cares?