Photography in the digital age has changed significantly with post-processing tools becoming more accessible and powerful. There are tutorials out there for doing everything from simple tone curve adjustments and sharpening all the way to blending techniques of different images and warping of scenes. This ability to make images more interesting and visually stunning from what might have been an average shot only a few years ago demonstrates how far we have come!
We see many more photographers and the images published using ever more dramatic post-processing to pump in drama and interest that wasn’t there before. It has partially turned into the creative crutch many will rely upon instead of getting the composition, timing, colors, etc… just right in initial capture. There is also a lacking of transparency of these methods used which can contribute to some issues in the community. Perhaps we instead of just focusing on what is possible in post-production we should also be interested in questioning how far it ought to be taken as well.
Confusing the Community
Lightroom is my main tool for processing. Adjusting tone curves, white balance, and other small things to get the image to more closely match the scene composed!
In posting to social media to large amounts of followers that don’t understand the power of post-processing there can easily be some confusion caused. The gullible of the group will believe that all these photos are being honest with them. Believing that photos shared are basically #nofilter may make viewers frustrated with their own images trying to do something similar without using the same techniques. There is also going to be a large group that sees everything online as fake. This jaded point of view that skeptics have makes it more difficult for photographers that try to keep images more natural to be believed as well!
Tied into confusing those looking at the images is those who see your photography and decide to go to a spot because of it. If the image is heavily manipulated, tagged to a location (this is another issue in and of itself), and doesn’t state that it was altered to fit the vision of the photographer those seeing the content can easily be led right into a lie. It is practically fraudulent to say an image is of a place when it was stretched, clone stamped, and blended beyond recognition. Photography is a subjective art that can either be more tied to reality or it can be an artistic interpretation, but either way, it needs to be disclosed what we are doing as photographers!
The Culture of Landscape Photography
I take a natural post-processing approach to most of my images. My most recent work has almost none. I do apply some usage of photoshop for panorama stitching and getting the sharpness perfected.
When looking at the field of landscape photographers today it is difficult to find many that don’t rely on at least some of the manipulative post-processing techniques taught today. This has changed the culture of landscape photographers from focusing on creating imagery of beautiful natural scenes to digital darkroom tactics for making the images captured gain attention and accolades.
This has fed into reality not being beautiful enough on most occasions. The light isn’t quite right, colors are off, the rock is in the wrong place, the mountains aren’t tall enough… it is easy to see how it gets out of hand fairly quickly! I am not trying to extrapolate these things either, because if you take a critical look at leaders in landscape photography these sorts of ideals are prevalent everywhere now.
Instead of using in-the-field practices to get the best out of images through timing, composition, focal length, and other in-camera options there is more of the mindset that “We’ll fix it in post!”. It takes away from the original purpose of landscape photography which is to be in nature while practicing the craft! Instead, it is easy to spend twice as much time in front of a computer working the images that you could have just spent a few extra minutes fixing while out at the scene adjusting the camera or waiting for the right light!
I am not going to fully advocate for no post-processing in landscape photography. It should be assumed, for example, that anyone taking the craft seriously uses tools like Lightroom on RAW files to make sure they get the most out of files captured. I would like to see more photographers being honest with their followers and the community about the level to which they go to in post-production. It isn’t obvious to everyone out there, and in this case, honesty is the best policy.