The Art of Post-Processing in Photography

I finally had a chance to get out and “smell the roses” as they say. I’ve found it to be harder and harder over the years to just slow down and spend an hour or two walking through the property, there always seems to be something pressing that needs attention, and that is not my most enjoyable (or effective) pace. I took a few images here straight out of the camera that were my favorites. There was no post-processing done on these images, they were the jpg’s right off the card (and as such need a little sharpening and so on).

For those who don’t quite get the often-misunderstood post-processing world, it’s really hard to shoot in-camera today without post-processing in mind, but it’s only a “process” to develop the artistic expression of photography, it doesn’t make bad shots better. Black and White film photographers were probably the ones who perfected the post-process in their personal labs (my grandfather had a great one in his basement). I find post-processing a valuable and perfectly acceptable part of the photographic process. It has always been a part of the art of photography (even Ansel Adams post-processed his B&W’s), and it takes just as much art to post-process well as it does to take the original image well. You still have to create the absolute best image within the camera to start with, otherwise no amount of post-processing will matter.

But, never mind all that today. I did some depth-of-field shots of our roses in the garden, and then again with the wildflowers growing out in the pasture, and then of course of the cat. Have you ever tried to get a young cat to sit still for a portrait? That’s why I’m so impressed with good cat portraits, they really aren’t as easy as one might think.