Do You Still Need To Be A Good Photographer To Create Good Images, Or...

Osprey in distant tree.  I edited this image as I typically would for most of my images—brightness, white balance, contrast,
saturation and sharpness. (click to enlarge)
This is as close as I could get to this raptor using the Olympus 300mm f/4 PRO lens + the MC-!4 1.4X tele-converter.

...do you just need to be good with photo editing software?

Same image except the limbs were removed in Photoshop, the sky was added in Luminar 4 and then the image was
then tweaked in Lightroom. (click to enlarge)

It used to be that you really had to know your stuff to create good photographs, especially to create them consistently.  Of course, anyone can get lucky and now and then and create a great image, but to consistently make good images under a wide variety of circumstances and with many types of subject matter, you had to be well versed in photographic understanding and technique as well as have a good eye.  That's why the pros are the pros.  They get hired because they can be counted on to bring back excellent images every time.

Now, it seems, with a little money and some software, all you really need to do is to get your subject in focus.  Using some of the latest photographic software tools, you can create the rest of your "image" as you wish.  Whether that software is in the form of pre-made "filters" such as are found in Instagram or in phone apps that create special effects or in full fledged programs such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One, DXO, Exposure X5, Luminar or others of a similar nature, you can pretty much create what you want.  And, if you are going after a specific soft, dreamy or foggy "look," you may not even have to have your image in focus!

These two images serve as an illustration of my premise.  In this example, all I really needed to do was ensure the osprey was in sharp focus.  I created the rest of the image digitally and doing so made an unremarkable image into a better one, in my opinion.  Are you okay with these kinds of changes major changes in image files?  I am as long as I tell you how extensive I manipulated the file.  I don't want to deceive you by allowing your to think what you see is how the image, in essence, was captured in the camera.

The top image is how the image file came out of my camera with some normal run of the mill edits that we all perform.  I tweaked the brightness, white balance, contrast, adjusted the saturation, applied sharpening, etc.  You know, the kind of things every image needs in the digital process.  The other version of the same image was imported into Lightroom Classic, then sent first to Photoshop for removal of the branches above the osprey, then over to Luminar to add the sky and finally back to Lightroom for final editing such as cropping, HSL tweaks, clarity, texture, etc.  One-two-three.  Easy as could be.  About 10 minutes worth of time.

Typically I don't create documentary work nor photojournalism which severely limits editing.  However, I do like my images as much as possible right out of my camera.  The key to that phrase is "as much as possible."  Sometimes I need to do some additional editing to achieve the look I desire (and how I visualized it when I was making the image) for my final image.  I call that creating my photographic art.  The art part of that statement gives me some liberties to manipulate my images to reflect what my mind's eye saw at the time I pressed the shutter button.  That being said, when I take what I would call a "traditional" image and create something entirely different from what I saw and recorded, I feel I need to not allow you to assume what you see is how it came out of my camera.  

I don't particularly care for adding or replacing skies.  I don't mind removing a piece of litter, a wire or such that may distract from the main subject.  I don't mind adding a specific specialized filter as well.  I might even slightly move an object to improve the composition if, when viewing the original scene, I determined that needed to be done.  (Why don't people put things exactly where they make the best compositions? LOL)

I don't mind the image reflecting what my minds eye saw when I pushed the shutter button.  Those types of corrections don't affect the intention of the image or the main subject to the point where the meaning has changed or the image has become radically different from the original file.  However, when I add a sky or substantially alter an image in other ways, I feel it is no longer just a photograph, but photographic-based art.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing so, in my book.  However, I think it is important for viewers to know that.

By regularly resorting to heavily manipulated or otherwise substantially changed images to make them into something they really never were can be detrimental to photographers' skill sets.  I think the ability to do so can really enhance the original image, at times, but it also can cause us as photographers to be lazy, lax and not work to improve our photographic skills.   After all, we can "fix it in Photoshop" later.  Why should I work hard now?

How about you?  Do you use all of those digital tools to "create" your vision or do you like to rely on the way photography has traditionally been created, through the process of learning the craft and perfecting your technique over years or practice and application?

I know I have a greater satisfaction with the images I make that are pretty much straight out of my camera than the ones that have been heavily digitally manipulated.  The satisfaction comes from using all of my experience and skills to get the best file possible at the time I pressed that shutter button.  But that's just me.  YMMV.

Join me over at my website, www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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