Post production or postmortem?

Your graduation picture is important.  For some of your friends and acquaintances it might be the picture they remember you by.  It will bring back all the memories they spent with you in the magnificent and miserable formative years.

 
Yet Sometimes that photo can be so over edited and "fixed", that the uniqueness of the subject (who in this case is you!) can be completely lost.  Thus was the case with my grad photo.  In an overly enthusiastic effort to polish over each and every flaw, my personality, my individuality was lost, destroyed even. Fittingly this picture has also been lost, or possibly destroyed as I could not find any to post.

This brings us into the much debated topic of post production in photography.

I embarked on writing this thinking I was for the most part opposed to post production in photography.  That is to say digital photography at least.  35mm Film post production, where you're hand deep in chemicals, working isolated in the dark, seemed more pure and true of an artist.
I felt that the instant gratification of quick fixes in a sub-reality "photoshop", or for that matter even the ability to instantly view your pictures on the back of the camera kind of destroyed some of the purity of an art revolving around patience, timing, and quick thinking know how.  Being able to snap a seemingly unlimited amount of pictures and then distort them to any end, in any number of different ways; to me simply destroyed, the beauty of patience, timing, and skill.  The ability to navigate a computer program gained precedence over the artistic eye, reflexes, and quick thinking required to capture a moment in time.

I admit most of this viewpoint was based on misguided romanticism and a general inability on my own part in using programs such as Photoshop.  Thus not really appreciating it and brushing it aside as cheating or laziness.

As I've done more research, I've gained more respect for those who excel at post production, and realized even with hours of post, garbage is still garbage, and beauty is still beauty.  Post production is just one more process in the art of photography.  In post you can saturate colors, dodge and burn just like in the dark room, soften, sharpen, and an endless amount of other manipulations or enhancements if you will.  If used with purpose and restraint, these tools can truly enhance the story, theme, and visual appeal to a photo.

That said, the over use of post production tools, or a reliance on these to fix boring or uninteresting photo's will be the death of your photography.  How, you ask? Reliance on post production will only lead to the endless taking of more and more boring and uninteresting photo's.
For example, imagine you are learning to grill steak.  If, right from the first steak you grill, you season that piece of meat to death, you'll lose an understanding of how really to bring the flavor of the meat out properly.  Just relying on the seasoning you limit your ability to truly cook a masterful meal.
On the contrary, if you cook, using very little seasoning, you will know best how to cook the meat itself.  Then down the road perhaps, you can use slight amounts of seasoning to best bring out the flavors of the meal.

Post production is a little seasoning to an already delicious meal, just a little finishing touch to highlight the tastes and aromas of the food.  Not half a bottle of hot sauce poured over a bland, dry meal simply to make it palatable.

So, here is my advice.
Don't begin your photographic career using photoshop or any other post processing program for that matter.  After you've discovered how to take a quality photo, then start experimenting with different tools, perhaps this could be even a year or two down the road.  In my opinion, at this point your eye will be sharper, what you wish to accomplish will be more clear, and in the long run you will truly have the ability to create art.

Thus is my opinion, feel free to comment and continue the post-production debate.


Here's a couple examples of Pre- and Post- Produced.

Photo straight from camera . . .

After editing in gimp (upon second look, I'm not sure if I improved it even) . . . .

Another example
straight from camera . . .

After photo has been gimped . . .