Any alternatives to photoshop?

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Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.
Ansel Adam

For some photos, I have no preconceived outcome in processing. They are like an empty page in front of a writer who puts his pen on the paper and starts to write.

[Manfred M]

Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.
Ansel Adam

For some photos, I have no preconceived outcome in processing. They are like an empty page in front of a writer who puts his pen on the paper and starts to write.

I generally have a concept on how I am going to post-process an image before i press the camera's shutter release and it has been that way with me for at least the past decade. I hear a lot of other experienced photographers make similar statements.

One thing that happens with a lot of photographers is that they develop a "style" as they become experienced, so that would at least partially explain why that happens.

The other thing that occurs for many photographers, as they gain experience, is that taking a picture becomes more controlled and deliberate. Knowing what you want the final image to look like is part of that process.

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The other thing that occurs for many photographers, as they gain experience, is that taking a picture becomes more controlled and deliberate. Knowing what you want the final image to look like is part of that process.

I get that, Manfred, but it can turn into a lot of work. A couple of years ago, I had an idea for a photo of a horse carriage in Central Park. I had the location and a clear idea of the shot's angle. I adopted the angle from a photo of a child riding his bike in a park that I saw in a magazine advertisement. I thought it would be perfect for the shot. Then, I added other factors such as time of day, season of the year, and weather. I never followed up. Perhaps I would have pursued it if I had the time and lived across the street from the park. I do believe that creating a shot and getting it would be a very rewarding experience.

[Manfred M]

I get that, Manfred, but it can turn into a lot of work.

100% Correct.

The image that I posted in #20 took about 1-1/2 days of shooting (that included quite a number of different "sculptures", camera angles and focal lengths. Then I added the smoke and that took somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes per setup. Then I had about 4 days in post.

I didn't like the way the smoke looked after in my first attempt. I had the same heavy smoke I have in the central part of the image everywhere and it just didn't work the way I envisioned the final image needed to look. I basically went back and spent about a full day just refining the smoke.

The whole series of 9 image I am showing at the exhibition was selected from a set of 12 images. Each one took about a week to shoot and process, so there are about 3 months of work there.

[DanK]

I think it's important to point out that there is a VERY big range between SOOC and what Manfred describes. I suspect I'm a moderately heavy post-processor relative to the folks on this forum, but I have never spent anywhere nearly as much time on an image or a set of images as Manfred describes.

The time I spend editing depends on the type of image and the conditions under which it was shot. I'll give a few examples:

--The image I posted above was catch-as-catch can: I had only one opportunity to shoot the image, I didn't have the ideal equipment with me, and the lighting was bad. I didn't time the editing, and I don't remember in detail, but I would guess that editing took me several tries and several hours over a number of days.

--Another one that requires a number of tries and hours of work is this one, which wasn't right out of camera, partly because of the circumstances and partly because I messed up. I'd guess I spent 4 hours on it, spread over a number of days.



--My studio macro shots of flowers require more time setting up and often multiple series before I get one I like. However, I have control over lighting and equipment, so once I have an acceptable focus-stacked composite (which can be time-consuming if it requires cleanup), the remaining editing is usually quite quick, mostly a matter of tonality adjustments, local contrast, and sharpening.

--Macros of bugs taken with a flash often require less editing yet, although the time consuming part is taking lots of images before getting one that is acceptable to work with.