photo processing no nos!
 

May we make a thread and point out the things we think should not be done to our photos? (this is not regarding anyone specific just certain things that drive us crazy)

1. please don't make the grass neon.

2. please don't make eyeballs blinding white.

Do not over airbrush skin! Skin should have texture and color subtleties!

I did this a lot when I first got photoshop :o no crazy unnatural eye colors.

Ditto the over-whitening thing, only on teeth . . .

this.

for the love of pete.

I can't even airbrush Bella's 99% of the time. It tends to look overdone on it's own. :glare:

I totally ditto the eyes!!!

I think some of the things that bother me when I look at photos are because the person who edited them can't tell they've done it because their screen is so darn bright or their calibration is so off. I say this because when I used to edit my photos on my old laptop, I thought the photos looked great and the colors were good, but once I got my Mac, I also calibrated it with a Spyder and went back to look at my pics and OMGOSH!!! They are terrible! Terrible skin tones and color casts, whole areas completely blown out... but it was merely because I wasn't viewing my photos correctly before since the calibration on my laptop was so bad. I try to be more understanding now when I view other people's photos because I know MOST people are not calibrated.

Not really a fan of selective coloring just for the purpose of showing the photographer can do selective coloring.

The eyes are rough. I've taken several photos recently where the eyes look overdone... and I didn't touch them. Then again, we have some serious blue eyes in my family (and in my classroom).

My own guilty is oversharpening. I've learned so much more about post-processing.

I over sharpen too, but sometimes it's the effect I want.

ditto on the brights...
1. don't overdue your color
2. don't overdue the noise reduction so they look plastic
3. I am also not a fan of selctive coloring
4. don't overdo your B&W conversions...

Eh, sooooo much of post processing is in personal tastes.
For isntance, I follow a blog that the author happened to start a photography business. They over airbrush things to the MAX and it makes me cringe, but you know what? They're getting paid, so obviously people out there hiring her like that style.

Personally, I love more of a color pop to my images, but others hate that.

And I definitely think that the monitor calibration is a huge thing, like Megan mentioned. I'm sure that my color popped images look awful to other people (my monitor isn't calibrated), but they look good to me (and print well).

I think I am with Colleen on this :)

Yes to this! My laptop is calibrated, but the calibration doesn't work as well when the laptop runs on battery. If I forget and edit on battery then plug in for the correct calibration, things are all blown out! I try to cut people some slack since the photos probably look fine to them, but some of it is just beginners loving their new photoshop tricks.


I agree with that, too. Personally, I like vibrant but realistic colors. But the trends seem to be on either end of the spectrum, either super soft, vintagey colors or very popped colors.

i hope i am not coming off as like i'm not sure a not nice person :)

I agree 100% with Megan, after being properly calibrated for almost a year (I use the X-Rite Eye One Display LT though) I can definitely tell when someone isn't calibrated now. I also agree though that post processing has a lot to do with personal taste, I personally prefer the soft hazy vintage look but I know not everyone else prefers that pp style.

...is feeling the need for monitor calibration...

I hate the oversharpened eyes that feel like aliens are staring at you. Especially in children.

Ditto the over-airbrushed/over-saturated photos, but some people actually pay big bucks to have their photos done that way, so I guess it's personal preference.

I'm still learning and have learned a lot in the last year but the thing that still gets me and it is personal taste I know is the pinkish tint to some photos. I guess it is supposed to be all antique like but to me it just seems like their white balance is off. And I know its on purpose because they post other photos (usually snapshots) that are just fine and normal in color. Again a personal preference but one that makes me cringe for some reason.

Overdoing anything! LOL I like natural looking photos. B&W sometimes but not always and selective coloring only once in a blue moon.

The thing about photography is the more you know the more you see things and cannot go back to the blindness of ignorance. Which is aggravating when your photos still are not "pro" quality but you can see it and not fix it!

Not even close . . . in fact, I don't even think that would be possible!

K, I totally hate your guts now. You're so evil.



















































:p

col :P

I think that is the thing that bugs me is when you see "pro" photographers out in business and charging big bucks... then they have their really bad processed photos and they say its just the "style" they are going for when its just trying to cover up for a poorly shot photo kwim?

b&w conversion done with desaturate
white vignettes

I am no pro at processing...but the desaturate b&w makes baby Jesus cry. LOL

iDie!!! LOLOLOL!!!

I totally get that Kristin. The one that mentioned actually takes good photos (well posed, well composed, well exposed, etc). She just "ruins" them with the INSANE airbrushing, lol. But, there's totally no excuse for a poor taken/composed/exposed/etc photo.

Regarding monitor calibration, the fancy calibration machines are out of reach right now. I have a Mac and know that there's a simple calibration utility built in, but haven't built up the courage to use it in case I really mess things up. Will I? Since I got my last page back from processing, I've tried to decide if it was my monitor or the photo processing that made it so dark. When I print it out on my printer, it looks reasonably accurate. But I know that every machine calibrates differently (monitors, photo processing machine, etc.)

word. I *know* mine is way, way off, so I have to guess. It sucks.

There are things I cringe at when I see them & think.."What are they doing?!?!"
-selective coloring
-fake airbrushing
-oversharpened, especially the eyes
-overwhitened eyes & teeth
-bad "sepia" tinting

It's all in personal taste though...sometimes I like a little different look, but mostly I like clear, clean, vibrant processing.

so I haven't really even started on post processing... but it sounds like i might need to get my monitor calibrated. how do i do this?

What I don't like in photos is anything overdone... That said, sometimes you can save really bad shots by overdoing them, but I don't see the point of total make-overs with perfectly good shots. Some minor changes, yes, but not over-the-top colour changes etc.

A bit OT as it only concerns post-processing partially - my quibble with a lot of professionally done children's photos is shooting them as adults - I'm not a prude, but children should be children. Dressing them as adults, putting them in adult poses and making their lips too red etc. just isn't up in my alley. Children *aren't* supposed to look sexy. I find that really disturbing. And yes, sometimes the over-sharpened eyes are way too creepy.

This! :)

Although the skin smoothing thing does look a bit silly IMO but if others like it, that's their choice lol. I like bright colours or B&W so it's one or the other for me which others may not like but we can't all be the same and like the same things. :)

I cringe when I look back at photos I 'edited' back in 2007 when I first got PS. Eek!!

I'll be honest for me it depends on my mood and the photo. I change what I love/hate.

But mostly I'm curious who this person is. If is who I think it maybe?

Agreed with all of this. I really don't like children posing suggestively. I HATE it.

Everything is a personal taste, I think. Like Col, I like the color pop, a LOT. I also think skin smoothing is ok. I did learn a trick from a blog once, on how to smooth, but then use the eraser brush on 50% to take a bit of the smoothness off, so the skin still has texture.

Things I don't like:
-overusing the noise reduction or skin smoothing so the people look plastic.
-over whitening the eyes and teeth

Otherwise, anything else goes. Just because I don't like it, doesn't mean someone else doesn't!

YES!!! And when "pros" do it I'm like eeek! Actually my pro that I had in Ohio actually showed me the light on that one- actually the gradient mask.

Even if you calibrate your monitor the lab you send them to is going to tweek the color how they want it!!!

Just for kicks I sent ONE image to seven different pro labs. I got SEVEN differently processed photos. Some labs love to bring out the reds, others the greens, and others the peachy tones! Crazy!!

Kjersti, that's not usually the lab doing any processing. That's just the printer profile being different. Different labs use different profiles. It's a PITA, lol. That's why I pretty much just stick to WHCC. My test prints came back awesome, and for the most part I don't have to worry about it.

I honestly stick to a natural approach on most of my shoots unles I'm asked other wise. I had a client las week that wanted selective coloring and I did a couple for her. I usually just do a simple color pop and black & white for all my clients and let them decide.

Sometimes I like the crossprocessing look or the vintage look, but it has to be the right kind of photo and you have to know what you're doing. I'm not good at the really funky colored photos.

And you need to be calibrated, now for my pics that I scrap, I don't really care, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them.

Understanding that all of this is really just personal taste, I will say this..........selective coloring makes my stomach turn. I really dislike it.

About a year ago, I had just met a friend of a friend who is also 'supposedly' into photography. When she found out that I'm into photoshop, too, she was excited and was saying "oh, so you can make a picture black and white and then color things in it!" I was all like "selective color?" (not trying to be a photog snob, but she didn't know what it was called). I said "I don't do that." She asked if I didn't know how, and I had to gently explain that it was because it's just at all not my taste. :)

Honestly, I know my pictures aren't perfect so I don't really stress too much about what other people's photos look like. I figure they look good to them, so hey...do what you want.

My computer's not calibrated so crap, suddenly I'm thinking my "looks good" photos are really awful looking! *panic*

Ditto on the too blindingly white eyeballs and teeth <-- guilty of doing this
Also, I don't know if it's because maybe my monitor's not bright enough, but I've seen photos where a nudge of the Curves function would work wonders.

That said, I like selective color, color pop, vintagey and retro processing (BIG fan of this) and rich b&w. :)

Oh sure, make us look like bad guys. LOL

Seriously I do agree with you to an extent. I think it just bothers me when I see pros that charge big bucks and they have some glaring processing issues.

I agree, mostly we are griping about pros and self declared pros. Which I will self declare I am NOT!

I couldn't have said it better ! :)