[missbirdphotos] Re: An idea for helping each other learn about post-processing

  • From: "Dance, Gayla" <dancegf@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "missbirdphotos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <missbirdphotos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:23:56 -0500

I love this idea.  I'll participate as much as possible, but after Spring 
Break, things really speed up until school is out.  (We call it Awful April.)

gayla

________________________________
From: missbirdphotos-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [missbirdphotos-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
On Behalf Of Frank Hensley [dr_frank_hensley@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2012 6:52 AM
To: missbirdphotos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [missbirdphotos] An idea for helping each other learn about 
post-processing

I wonder what you all think of this: (Oops, sorry. I live in MS now, don't I?  
I'll try again.)

I wonder what y'all think of this: If someone would volunteer to post a RAW 
photo (probably too big for an attachment, so it would need to go on a server 
for download) and then anyone who wanted to could try post-processing. Give 
people a couple of days to find time to work on it, and then people could post 
.jpgs of their work and we could compare results, discussing both the aspects 
of the work and the advantages/disadvantages of the software used. People could 
also keep track of how many steps it took and how much actual time was spent.  
I'm prompted to do this because I think some people's work just "pops" and 
others I look at and say "that's photoshopped" because the results look 
over-processed and unnatural to me.

Now we'd need some ground rules. Discussion would have to be civil of course 
and allow for the fact we have different tastes and personal preferences. But I 
think I would stand to learn a lot, and also it would help me make some 
decisions about whether to buy some more expensive software or to keep using 
the free stuff I rely on.

It might be best if we had two volunteers at a time, one to post a Nikon RAW 
image and one to post a Canon RAW, in case people use software that only 
handles one format. I'd be happy to volunteer a Nikon shot if I can figure out 
how to make it available for download...

What do you think of the idea? Participation voluntary, or course. We could set 
a date for the "big reveal" and then commence discussion.  I can think of 
several ways to do this that would be educational. For example, we could do an 
initial round for a photo with good exposure, then maybe a round that is 
overexposed and practice rescue techniques. One round could have rippling water 
as a background, but since it is MS maybe a snowy background is a low priority 
("Hallelujah!" says the guy who moved here from Chicago!). I think the only 
requirement for the photos used would be that they are in focus and close to 
correct exposure. They would not have to be anyone's best work - just workable.

Your thoughts? How many of you would play, if we tried this?

-Frank
P.S. Can you tell I'm on Spring Break from school? :)


Other related posts: