Processing

What happens after you take the image

Photography does not have to end with you pressing the shutter button. Processing is the part of the process that comes after light hits the sensor. You may like to use more or less of it, that is a choice, but knowing what you can do is important.

What falls into processing

Tools

Isn't this changing the reality?

You can certainly do substantial changes to an image through processing that goes beyond repairing. But anything you do with the image is just as part of the process as something else. Even things that do not look like it like, choosing (or even engineering) the light, the camera options, the file type used to save the image will be adding some processing.

Fixing an image

I took this picture in a gallery, hand held, bad light, and did not have the time to properly make all the adjustments. The art is from Alejandro AZÓN BALLARÍN, truly amazing piece, but this shot really does not do justice.

There are so many things wrong here. I added a couple of lines to highlight the problems a bit more..

The white balance is completely off, the background of the picture is supposed to be white but ended up a light mocha color. You could maybe blame part of it to the light inside the gallery, but it is way off. (black rectangle)
I am holding the camera slightly tilted. Left side is lower than the right (yellow line)
The trusted but simple Nikon 18-105 has a bit of pincushion distortion. (red lines)

It is amazing how easily these can be fixed. Although I am someone that rarely uses post-processing, it took a couple of minutes with GIMP to get the following

The first fix was Colors → Auto → White Balance
Next up is the distortion, Filters → Distorts → Lens Distortion and only playing with the Main parameter was sufficient to fix the pincushion
And the last is to rotate the image slightly SHIFT-R

Now when you look at this image above you realize that all these modifications have distorted the edges of the picture, so the idea is to crop the image a bit to get the final result.

So now we have corrected the mistakes we have made or could have avoided. Is this really bad? Photography is supposed to be fun, you may not have the time or interest to get every detail of the picture adjusted so that when you press the shutter button the perfect image appears as a file in your camera. So you can decide to spend additional time after you have taken the image.

While how much you use is up to you, knowing what image post processing tools are capable of is important. That helps you while taking your pictures (or buying equipment).

These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.