Hello LCC members,

Why Post Process?

Because your camera is not perfect at recreating a faithful scene. This is a fact due to the Dynamic Range of the camera.

Many years ago we used film to capture photos and film was not perfect either. That is why photographers like Ansel Adams would spend many hours dodging, burning to create the final photograph. The final print was the photographers vision true to who? Yes, that’s right the photographer. There are also many other things of course like composition but that has already been discussed in other posts.

The posts can be found here PhotographyTips and Tricks

Now in the age of digital our cameras do a much better job at analyzing the scene for proper exposure. The camera does whatever the programmer has put into the cameras little brain. This is why if you shoot with Nikon the photos straight outta camera “SOC” will look different than say Canon, Sony, Fuji and all these will look different than each other “SOC”. Why because of proprietary programming code.

If you like the images you get without processing them that’s great then you don’t need to read any further.

So, your still reading?

Ok, here we go.

The first thing you should do if you want to take control over your images.

Shoot in RAW if your camera has this option, which is the digital version of a film negative.

Then you must post process the image.

The options vary, here is a list of software

• Adobe Lightroom which you can buy and pay monthly subscription fee. (PC and Mac)

• On1 software which is you buy and there is no subscription fee. (PC and Mac)
• Topaz just released Topaz Studio. Versions for PC and Mac
• MacFun has Luminar. (Mac Only at this time – PC version available soon)
• Corel After Shot Pro (PC Only)

For Standalone or Plugin HDR Processing

• Photomatix Pro (PC and Mac)
• Aurora HDR (Mac Only)
• EasyHDR (PC and Mac)

Steve

If you have any comments or questions let me know.