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Avoiding Excessive Use of Photoshop

Photoshop is one of the greatest tools to ever be introduced to the world of photography. With its robust interface and irreplaceable tools, many modern photographers would be lost without it. While the benefits surely outweigh the costs, many photographers rely too heavily on Photoshop for finalizing their work. Just about every commercial photographer these days uses the program to boost their results, but how much is too much?

Purists believe that it doesn't take much at all. In its heyday, black and white photography was all about the personal touch - everyone's prints looked different depending upon their individual style. The tools and tricks of analog manipulation were more art than science, and interesting results relied not on computer algorithms but instead on experimentation and the careful use of the human hand. While many photographers still use these techniques to this day, Photoshop and other types of augmentation software have all but replaced traditional techniques.

To be fair, the program is incredibly versatile. Most of the time, a raw image needs a little help to reach the point of being all that it can be, and Photoshop is a user-friendly, versatile program that can more than do the job. Some of the most beautiful printed images in photography have been subject to various degrees of alteration via Photoshop, and to great effect. The problem arises when photographers use Photoshop not to enhance their work but instead to cover\ flaws and make up for isn't there. When used as security, Photoshop can be a dangerous tool.

We've all been witness to prints that have been so overly "Photoshopped" that they look more like cartoons than photos, and no one wants to claim ownership to these prints. Yet, so many people are victim to the same crime, whether they want to admit it or not. Anyone who is concerned with the quality of their works has likely used Photoshop as a band-aid, and more often than not this results in ruining the photograph altogether. Photoshop is a great enhancement tool, but it is not a magic solution to an already dead photograph.

So next time you fire up Photoshop and start playing around with your images, remember that restraint will yield quality results. Overusing Photoshop is like putting on way too much makeup; do what you can to avoid it at all costs.

“I love the region in which I live and thus concentrate a great deal of my photographic time and effort exploring areas within a three hour drive radius of home.”

Born in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, Ross Ipenburg is an engineer by trade, with "an affinity for the graphic arts." He took up photography as a hobby when his first child was born. Like any passionate enthusiast, he took bunches of pictures of his family and macro pictures of his garden with his compact Nikon Coolpix 5700. Gaining inspiration from magazines and websites, he explored all the compact camera can do and eventually bought a prosumer style camera, a Nikon D300, to explore further. He found that his hobby was relaxing him from the normal stresses of working life.

While exploring the camera and more inspirational websites, he found that there are different aspects and fields to photography. Ross says they are "somewhat like the different fields of engineering" and found it appealing. He saw that other photographers with similar skill levels were making portraits with very basic gear. He looked on these photographers with "jealousy and envy" and they have since become an “endless source of inspiration”.

Now, three years after first picking up his first camera, black and white landscapes has become the standard for him. Haunting, surreal, and inspired by other photographers as Michael Levin and David Burdeny, Ross’ photographs are made with the use of neutral density filters. This allows Ross to drag the shutter for minutes if not hours and make crashing waves into a gentle mist. These scenes seem like nothing else in the world. Truthfully they are not of this world as they exist only as a result of Ross’ brilliant artistry and imagination.

Ross travels not far to create his masterpieces: “I love the region in which I live and thus concentrate a great deal of my photographic time and effort exploring areas within a three hour drive radius of home.” This goes to show that one does not need to travel to far exotic places to take great pictures, whether black and white or color. You just need a vision and a passion.

Mr. Ipenburg explains his passion for black and white photography: “[As] I started to explore B&W processing of [the image of my daughter] it totally transformed into an amazing image which I cherish to this day. I was amazed how the removal of distracting color drew attention away from the awful colors and back to her beautiful face – she almost jumped off the page…Since that moment I have explored how B&W draws much greater attention to the subject and how tonal and textural contrasts can work together much more effectively to create mood and feeling, or direct the viewer’s eye within the frame, than color ever could.”

by Chris Puttere

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