Proper exposure & white balance vs......

wetsands

.....

I was talking to a photog who I respect a great deal... asking him about pp'ing, curves etc....

what he said made a great deal of sence to me....

he said if you get the exposure correct as well as proper white balance (either at the time of the shoot or , if shooting raw w/ the raw converter) at the time of capture, that he feels no need for curves or other methods of manipulating the contrast as there is plenty of contrast already if captured correctly.....

any thoughts on this..(i can't help but feel he was holding back alittle..kind of keeeping his "secret recipe" to himself.. :-)...

gus

Its a personal thing....i wont walk away from a photo until ive tried some LAB on it....very rarely does it not improve the shot.

Shay Stephens

You are far better off in PP if you have good color and exposure. But nearly all photos can benefit from an artistic eye with regards to contrast and such.

ScottG

Well, I would go old school here. As Mr. Adams used to say, the negative is the score, the print is the performance.

Ansel Adams would make perfect exposures, yet he would always massage the final prints with dodging and burning here and there to make the final print exactly the way he invisioned it.

Taking this thought process, I always approach the raw file as the score. I've gone back in even after making final images and prints and re-do them to get the performance I want.

chrisjlee

wetsands wrote:

.....

he said if you get the exposure correct as well as proper white balance (either at the time of the shoot or , if shooting raw w/ the raw converter) at the time of capture, that he feels no need for curves or other methods of manipulating the contrast as there is plenty of contrast already if captured correctly.....

I believe thats the ideal way to manage workflow regardless of whether you are going to do post processing on the photo or not.

I would have to agree with the latter opinion that I would have to play around with LAB settings before I let go of every individual photo.
465456 photos it isn't ideal to color correct every single one if you have clients waiting for the photos; unless you have intelligent color correction slaves; which is hard to find these days.

HeldDown

I can see both points of view here, and I agree with both. When you're shooting a lot of photos -- wedding, event, concert, etc -- things that will displayed as a collection or series -- nailing your WB and exposure and letting the rest fall on skill is a very good methodology. They look more natural, are more truthful in their visual information, and take much less time to process.

If it's a single photograph meant to display, convey, etc, I agree with Humungus and the others -- a little post (as long as it is performed with some skill!) never hurt a pic.

Just my 2% of a currency unit.

mercphoto

wetsands wrote:

he said if you get the exposure correct as well as proper white balance (either at the time of the shoot or , if shooting raw w/ the raw converter) at the time of capture, that he feels no need for curves or other methods of manipulating the contrast as there is plenty of contrast already if captured correctly.....

I don't see how proper exposure (correct mix of aperture, shutter speed and ISO) has anything to do with the contrast in an image. A properly exposed scene of a misty, foggy day will have no contrast whatsoever.

DavidTO

One of the key elements to a properly processed image is to localize the contrast in the areas that are of interest. The steepest part of the curve should be in the area that you want the viewer to be looking at. A face, for instance, or whatever the subject of the shot is.

Properly exposing a shot does not allow for the use of localized contrast and will leave you with a flat shot most times. Not terribly flat, but noticeably flat.

saurora

Lots of my most interesting, contrasty shots were the results of an improper exposure. Of course, most of mine are improper exposures. I suppose this photographer doesn't use filters as well since he relies on proper exposure. Wonder what he does with all that perfectly exposed smog, haze, etc.??? Proper exposure defintely saves a lot of headache and time, but I think he is (like you mentioned) holding back some secrets.