Extreme post processing

[Alfasud]

This picture started out as a snap shot taken with a Minox B. It was an 8mm transparency. When scanned, it was muddy and out of focus. It was not a keeper. The composition of the figures was, however interesting, and to me tells a story. I started cropping, and playing with Photoshop, and this was the result.

My thanks to daveleo for suggesting I post it on this thread

 

[Paul Jenkin]

There's a fine dividing line as to where photography stops (i.e. the photo remains reasonably loyal to the original) and where it crosses over into digital art. Both are fine in my book other than for badly executed HDR.

By "badly executed" I refer to "obvious". I have no issue with anyone pimping up the shadows an controlling the highlights to the point where the photograph still bears a close resemblence to something that might have existed. However, the number of times I've had my eyes abused by some migraine-inducing, proto-nuclear, over-saturated, over-sharpened cartoon beggars belief.

The fact that the software allows such abominations doesn't mean it's appropriate to create them. Thankfully, I've seen very few of them on this site but if you look on Flickr / Tumblr, there's some ghastly stuff as well as the sublime.

 

[daveleo]

It's apparent from my previous postings that I am a big fan of bold, edgy
pictures (painted, photographed, digitized, whatever). Not that I
personally like them all, or that I think they are all "great art"; but, rather
than look over the same old styles again and again, it is exciting and
intriguing (for me) to see a new interpretation of . . . . whatever it is I'm
looking at.

Again, not that I think it's all so great, but it does represent someone's
effort to say something visually (and around here that usually starts with a
camera photograph) , and maybe say it from an interesting perspective.
And it takes some moxie to put it on the table for people to view and
comment on; rather than putting up yet another pretty camera-made
photograph that everyone is sure to gush over.

@Paul Jenkin . . . . I disagree about the "fine line" you mentioned. I think
it's really a dark foggy swamp that lies between "photography" and "not-
photography" and I think it gets swampier as technology moves on. I also
don't think that it matters very much as to what it is or isn't.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

Extreme? Sure, sometimes. In varying degrees. Sometimes as extreme as this:

 

[kxl]

Here's one of mine...

 

[Jamie Pillers]

This picture started out as a snap shot taken with a Minox B. It was an 8mm transparency. When scanned, it was muddy and out of focus. It was not a keeper. The composition of the figures was, however interesting, and to me tells a story. I started cropping, and playing with Photoshop, and this was the result.

My thanks to daveleo for suggesting I post it on this thread

Sorry for the late comment, but I like this interpretation a LOT!! It seems to boil all the photo's information down to the pure essence of the body language between the people. More of these, please! 🙂

 

[Jamie Pillers]

Perhaps because this forum is primarily about rangefinders and rangefinders have traditionally been used for street photography I find that many people here are resistant to the idea of doing much post process work. Post processing is like darkroom work in the analogue photo world - more the domain of art photographers. (In my mind I compare Ansell Adams - the artist who spent huge amounts of time processing / printing his images with Robert Capa the reporter. These kind of epitomise the two extremes for me).

I quite enjoy the possibilities post processing opens up and while most of my photography is straight forward I occasionally "go for broke" and turn images into something quite different from how they started.

Here are a few of my more "extreme" examples. Not great art, maybe but fun to do never the less. Lets see yours...............

CHIAROSCURA


Chiaroscuro in hood by yoyomaoz, on Flickr

TEXTURE ON A CITY SKYLINE


Textures on City by yoyomaoz, on Flickr

CITY WALKERS


Impressions by yoyomaoz, on Flickr

COUNTRY GRAVEYARD IMPRESSIONS


Abstract dreaming - churchyard by yoyomaoz, on Flickr

Gorgeous stuff, Peter. Thanks for starting this thread.

 

[daveleo]

Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary (this morning)

Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary (this morning)

 

[jesse1dog]

Does this qualify?

Does this qualify?




jesse

 

[Shirley Creazzo]

Oh Peter - the above two "Impressions 4" and "Office Life" are the ones for me. How I love that watercolor look. That real - transparent - watercolor look. The more watery the better. These are terrific.

 

[Shirley Creazzo]

kxl - this is just a lovely thing to behold. radiant.

 

[Shirley Creazzo]

I won this coffee maker in a photo contest promoting these coffee pots. They asked you to send a photo of what you would do w/ your old glass carage if you won one of these. Then I took this photo and did some post process'g w/ photoshop.

 

[kuzano]

See, Now that's one thing I don't get. I love this thread, and yet you find most people trying to use photo editing software trying to make their images more "Photo Realistic" or shades of.

It's pretty clear that Photoshop excels as a Graphic Artist's tool so much more than it serves as a vehicle to make minor changes to photographs to make them look more "photographic"

The same effort spent on some of the more abstract tools in Photoshop would result, as here, in more passion, emotion and creativity than what many stop way short of.

A plus for EXTREME Photo Processing.

 

[Greyscale]

Extreme post-processing by Greyscale3, on Flickr

 

[Keith]

My DP2M manages it all on it's own in certain conditions. This is straight out of camera at ISO 6400 ... the foveon sensor is a mystical thing! 😱

😀

 

[daveleo]

Reviving this very cool thread . . .

Reviving this very cool thread . . .

 

[lynnb]

Some of my favourite subjects - like waves - require extreme processing to bring out the tones in different parts of the histogram. In this example, adjusting tones for the white froth and spray adds drama:

 

[lynnb]

extreme processing here was used to convert a digital file in medium shades of green into a graphic composition in shape and sculptural form - which was how I visualised it when I shot it:

 

[lynnb]

what I was trying to convey about this sculpture is its monolithic appearance and lack of scale. It's actually only about 5' high. Viewed from ground level it could be any size. Extreme processing to accentuate the monolithic appearance and metallic textures against the sky:

 

[lynnb]

Sometimes extreme processing is needed to rescue images where mistakes have been made in exposure or development. This film was accidentally fogged during development. This was the best I could do to rescue the image: