Friday, September 4, 2009

A (frivolous) post-processing exercise


The way how images are perceived and evaluated is, of course, a very subjective issue. For instance, I don't generally appreciate heavily post-processed photos. I don't have anything against photo manipulation, as a principle. After all, the image starts being altered the moment one presses the shutter. It is just a question of personal taste how far one wants to go in digitally transforming the look of an image.

Out of curiosity, I used some basic tools in Silkypix to make the image on the left  look a bit gloomier. I used separate RGB tone curves, color tuning and vignetting control. Unlike some popular raw converters/editors, Silkypix does not allow for masking or localized actions. Nonetheless, I suppose that the result, shown above, can be considered technically reasonable. However, I still prefer a more classic - I would call it "subtler", but you might say I'm being pretentious - approach, like the B&W version below.

Pentax K10D + Zeiss Planar 50/1.4

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