Good point. I occasionally do some dodging and burning (with the dodge/burn tool), but only if my original exposure was a bit off, or if something is a bit distracting in the image. I do not have Ansel Adams' touch with the zone system, n-1 and n+1 developing, or his dodging and burning skills, and I have not really tried to duplicate these methods with photoshop. Not yet retired, I have only the time to learn composition, design, light and exposure. My "darkroom" skills are limited, but that forces me to take the time when I photograph to make the best picture I can. I shoot with only old manual primes (except when traveling), and believe me, that slows you down. Andrew On 08/22/2010 08:34 PM, David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > On 22-Aug-10 17:48, Andrew Sharpe wrote: >> Thanks for these suggestions. It is far more photoshopping than I >> normally do on my images (I usually do cropping, B&W, curves and a bit >> of sharpening, which already seems like a lot of post-processing). But >> your ideas have a lot of merit, and I'll see what I can do. It may very >> well be beyond my (current) ability at photoshop, but it sounds like an >> interesting way to learn more. > > In terms of "a lot" -- I guess it depends on your standards. It's less > than I'd do in the darkroom for any serious picture -- your list doesn't > have any dodging and burning. Which is exactly what additional curves > layers with layer masks is giving you (though you could use the > burn/dodge tool instead; but I'm a devotee of the cult of lossless > editing). > -- http://andrewsharpe.com
