Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Having Fun with Post Processing

I’ve learned a lot about photography in recent months and while I’ve enjoyed the challenge of capturing  images in camera, it’s the post processing of the images that I’ve been having real fun with. That’s the part of the process that for me is where the real creativity begins.

Let’s face it I’m a graphic designer/commercial artist at heart. And with all the software tools available these days the whole process of creating illustrative artwork digitally has become that much easier — and quicker too! A couple of months ago when I exhibited some of my photographic work I was flattered to hear 1 or 2 commenting on how they weren’t sure if what they were looking at was a photo or a painting. They seemed to like the fact that it looked like a painting.

Well, I like that sort of thing too, which is why I did it that way. However it’s not until you look closely at the work I've done so far, that the question even arises. Here’s a blown up section of a recent piece I’ve been working on.


It started off as a photo which was taken in the Auckland Wintergardens. The circle in the picture below shows the section that is shown in the enlargement above. To all intents and purposes, the picture shown at the current size below just appears to be an ordinary photograph. It’s only when you look closely that it appears like the picture above.


I’m really excited about the potential for this style of work. I realise of course that it’s not everybody’s cup of tea. There are the purists who think that photography should remain just that and that it shouldn’t pretend to be something else.

But these days it seems anything goes. We’re now only limited by our imagination.



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