Photo editing

[charlespearson]

As a newby to membership of a camera club I am interested in members views as to how much Photoshop it is appropriate to use as there is so much you can do with it. I noted one of the judges said this or that should have been removed and wondered in general is there any accepted wisdom on this.

[John Wade]

As much as you need. I know of one member who claims to do no processing work - ah, what it is to be perfect! There seems to come a point, though, where perfection regresses and that seems to be the moment to stop. Practically speaking life tends to be too short, anyway, and what appeals to one judge doesn't appeal to another. Best application is common sense. IMHO.

[JanetB]

Hi Charles,

It all depends on how happy you are with the image that you have and what you are going to use it for. Judges these days know that exteraneous items can be removed in Photoshop and if you want a 10 you need to perfect what you are presenting. I had a quick look at your images and the only thing I could find was some telegraph lines in your picture of the postbox in the snow.

Unless you particularily like sitting for hours in front of your screen, the answer is - do as little as you need to. Rather, spend the time with your camera, finding those images with the 'X' factor that judges will, hopefully, like too.

The wonderful thing with digital is, if you find a stunning scene but it is marred by telegraph lines/a crisp packet/vapour trails you can still have that stunning image because now you can get rid of the unwanted details - happy days :0)

Janet

[charlespearson]

Many thanks Janet that seems sound advice to me. My Janet and I view pictures in a different way now after attending a few meetings, and look at some of our old photos with a more critical eye. My biggest conundrum seems to be knowing where to crop some images and what should stay in.
Your comment regarding the telephone lines in my postbox photo is certainly a good one and it is strange how I have never noticed them before but do look for those things now.
Best regards Charles