What is wrong with the "digital Look"?

Ronald M said:
Digital can have a look that is poor. I have seen it. Seeing the digi stuff from my p&s Canon and scanned color from any Leica, I am convinced the bad pics are from those who can`t properly process the digi files. Perhaps my years in the dark has given me the ability to properly do simple Photoshop.
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I think the biggest issue is people OVER processing photos (too much sharpening, too much color saturation and contrast, canned "effects" routines) - and in most cases this is what gives that "digital" over processed look. Since there are a ton of canned routines just sitting there, most people think they have to use it to get acceptable results.

The other sin, is that a lot of folks enlarge their photos way too much. All the magazines say you can "magnify" and "rezz up" and get acceptable results - that isn't really true, either. While you don't get grain - you *do* get noise, pixellation, JPEG artifacts and other bad things that you have to be mindful of.

If you can manage to get photographs correctly with film, and you capture in JPEG on a digital camera- you ought to be able to get good results without cropping, and do moderate enlargement (realistically about the same level of magnification as a 35mm frame, or a little bit larger).

From your work in the darkroom, you probably realize the best amount of "post processing" usually is the least - and all the techniques have to be used sparingly and judiciously.
 
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