Stall The Ball

EDIT

A few photobloggers are showing their original photos.

Photoblogs are increasingly popular these days. A few I’ve been viewing have been around for a while and consistently amaze me with the quality of the photos. However I always wonder when viewing these photos, what the original looked like before photo shopping cropping etc.

Not that I have anything against photoshopping per se, I’ve been in to photography for years and trust me, film based photography gets just as much manipulation before and during the printing process as any digital image. Google “dodging and burning” to see where the terms came from. It’s been around since the dawn of photography.

The second aspect of the photos I would be very interested to see is the difference between a candid snap and the composed version. For example photo A is taken at normal eye level standing up of a pebble on a beach. It’s lost amid hundreds of others, it looks boring. Photo B is taken 2 inches away from the pebble looking out horizontally to show the waves and horizon or whatever.

Both photos are of the same item, one is so so, the other is a good photo. One of the most enlightening experiences I had in photography was to go to a photography course. It wasn’t the theory that I learned, the “insider secrets” I was shown (there are none) it was the final realisation that the pros don’t get it right all the time either. In fact the general consensus seems to be that out of a roll of 36 shots if you get 3 your happy with you are doing well. And that’s before they get adjusted during printing.

So what I would like to suggest to some photobloggers is to show us mere mortals what the original out of the camera photo looked like with no tweaking at all. Two photo side by side. One dull, flat, horizon not quite level, also including the telegraph pole off to one side, the second vibrant, punchy, horizon is mathematically level, the telegraph pole has been cropped out as was the vast amount of sky above the horizon etc. What would be even better would be a few lines describing what was done to the photo so that others trying to learn photo manipulation get an idea of what is possible, what effects are available and what a properly adjusted print can achieve from a relatively poor start.

I appreciate that some photobloggers are trying to make a living or at least a few bob out of their photos ad so might be reluctant to show the unedited original. But some are into photography just for fun.

Here is a list of some photobloggers I like. (In no particular order of preference I hasten to add)

GingerPixel

Inphotos

Rymus.net

pygment

Ken McGuire Photography

DjMagra’s Photo’s

EDIT: Found another photoblogger site I like
Dancing Shades of Light