Digital Manipulations and Portraits

[monicabeck]

I have a question that's been on my mind for a while now...
What are your thoughts on editing portraits to get a certain feel or aesthetic effect?
Here's one I did of my son a while back -- I increased the contrast. Do you feel it takes away from the actual picture or makes someone less of a "photographer" if they manipulate photos to highlight a certain aspect or give it an edgier/more artistic look?

[PhotoPhix]

Originally Posted by monicabeck

I have a question that's been on my mind for a while now...
What are your thoughts on editing portraits to get a certain feel or aesthetic effect?
Here's one I did of my son a while back -- I increased the contrast. Do you feel it takes away from the actual picture or makes someone less of a "photographer" if they manipulate photos to highlight a certain aspect or give it an edgier/more artistic look?

I find it amusing when this particular question comes up and it comes up often. The whole "right out of the camera"vs "Post Processing" debate. Regardless of whether or not you do anything to the shot once on your computer, the shot has already been processed by the camera using either the factory settings and or your custom settings. Same way the photo lab processed your roll of film back in the day.All that matters is that the final results are liked by you and or your customers or family. So those that seem passed themselves off as better than the rest because they don't PP their shots are kidding themselves.


Armando

[srt]

Hey, I think it only matters what YOU or your client thinks so long as.....your shot is good to begin with!

I think your image looks like it was good to begin with, maybe could have been slightly sharper on the eyes rather than the hair but it's pretty good, the boys face is clear and conveys an emotion. Personally I looove processing my images and I think the processing here is great, you could pull it back just a tad to get more detail into the centre of his face and I would probably de-saturate it slightly to make it not so warm on the edges of his face.

But that's just my opinion!