Back in the days of film, “post-processing” meant developing negatives or slides and making prints from them. With the advent of digital photography, the possibilities exploded far beyond the magic that Ansel Adams did in his darkroom. He looked at the negative as the musical score and considered himself to be the conductor who directs the symphony. I’m sure that he would have loved Photoshop for all the creativity that it brought to anyone with a computer. It truly enabled photographers to expand their artistic talent.

Recently, I had a brief discussion with someone who complained that a collection of photos that he had seen had all been too “modified”. His elaboration of that observation indicated that he firmly believed that changing images in any way was a travesty since it altered the reality that was captured on film. In other words, he was a “purist.” I have heard that line of logic many times before, but not in a very long time.

In the early days of digital, some club members wanted to segregate digital images from “real photography” in all club competitions.

Having had a color darkroom for over twenty years before transitioning into digital, I can understand both sides. In darkroom processing, we were able to exercise some control over the final product, but it was limited to:
 

• Making a test strip to determine the proper enlargement exposure time
• Cropping the image projected onto the easel
• Contribuled by Steve Matadobra
• Making test prints to ensure that the color was accurate
• Choice of papers with different surfaces
• Dodging selected areas of the image to make them lighter with less exposure
• Burning other areas of the image to make them darker with more exposure

Developing those skills required many trials and errors, plus a lot of chemicals and paper. Two of Ansel Adams’ famous examples of his mastery are Moonrise Over Hernandez and the Moon Over Half Dome in Yosemite. However, he was only trying to reproduce what he had seen…and felt…through the lens, given the limitations of the camera, lens, light metering, film, developing, and paper at that time. In a sense, all of these were “modifications,” but they were certainly necessary to achieve the desired effect.

More recent techniques include the use of filters, especially a polarizing filter, intentional camera motion, special lenses, such as fisheye and LensBaby, multiple exposures, timed exposures, and many more to provide special effects. Again, these are also “modifications.”

With the technological breakthrough of many types of software, spearheaded by Adobe Photoshop (created in 1988), the sky is the limit in possibilities for everyone who wishes to push the envelope of their artistic creativity as far as they want, be it highly “modified” depictions, abstracts or just wonderful representations of what they saw and wanted to preserve.

On further reflection of his remarks, it occurred to me that he probably does not realize how much “modification” goes into all published photographs, just to make them optimal in appearance; that is, with the correct exposure in every picture element, color adjustments, blemish removal, balanced cropping, vignetting, etc. I like to refer to this process as “optimizing” the images to make them appear their very best. I have never seen an image that met that goal right out of the camera, certainly not during the film days and not even with today’s digital cameras.
The classic examples are shots of sunrises and sunsets in which the skies are very bright, and the foregrounds are much darker.  Our eyes can easily see both extremes and enjoy both together in the overall scene, but no camera sensor has that much dynamic range (approximately 16 EV). However, using gradient density filters to capture the image and software to correct it, we can easily adjust the final photo to approach what we saw…and more closely to what we felt.

There is always something that can be improved, if only slightly. In my optimizing steps, I strive to render images that look realistically beautiful. If they appear garishly over-saturated or overdone in any way, I went too far. I once read a quip about using Photoshop; that it should be used like a fingernail file and not like a jackhammer!

Submitted by Bob Coffey

Because of the holidays, there will not be a December photo review. Reviews will resume in January with a new name of Monthly Photo Review.

The November photo album with comments is now available. To view the November Image Review album, click on this link.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3tjyC8gSNWDXUQwf9

The second image in a pair is the edited image.  Click on the number in the lower right to display the image and review comments.

Also, here is a link to a PDF file of some of the images Herk Schmidt's modified with his comments.

• The Club Christmas Gathering:  An email has been sent to all members on location (Bay Breeze Seafood) and time (6:30 pm).  Members are asked to email Sherri about their intent to join.  Her address is:  ccoh.newsletter@gmail.com. 
• 2023 Program Brochure:  JD Hannis has finalized our GYBS themes, critique themes and evaluators, and the Print Competition organization.  Hopefully, the Brochure will be ready for members to pick up at the Christmas Party.
• Workshop:  We currently have three workshops in the planning stage for 2023.  Alison Knaperek is stepping down (Thank you, Alison, for many years of service!), and we are looking for someone to head this up.  These workshops are critical for recruiting and maintaining our members as we continue to learn.  PLEASE consider taking this role over.
• The Club will be purchasing a new laptop for a more stable environment running our ZOOM meetings.  We will also look at a different microphone/sound system.
• The 2^nd Tuesday Critique will resume in January with the new name of Monthly Photo Review.  Thank you, Ward, for all your work in revising this important monthly learning opportunity.
• The Dues will not increase for 2023.  Nancy will send out letters to club members requesting they have their updated dues paid by the end of February.  Remember, you can pay in person (cash or check) as well as online through PayPal.
• The Club needs an AV Backup to assist Rich with the equipment needs of the club.

There will be no General Meeting in December because of the holidays. 

Instead, we hope you join us on Tuesday, December 13th at 6:30 for our Christmas Gathering at Bay Breeze Seafood Restaurant. Bay Breeze is located at 1830 Asheville Hwy in Hendersonville. 

CCoH 2023 General Meeting Schedule

The 2023 General Meeting schedule and list of presenters has been finalized. To view next year's meeting schedule and presenters, please click on this LINK.