postproduction 135
introduction
in the digital era, postproduction has become a key element of the picture-
making process for many people. it’s not a new thing—even at the dawn
of photography, people were experimenting with darkroom and printing
techniques, either to find better ways of doing things or for creative, artistic
purposes. the difference today is not just the ease with which we can
make adjustments to our images, but the astonishing results that can be
obtained, even by enthusiastic amateurs. Although i’m not a great believer
in intrusive postproduction and haven’t made much use of it in the images
of mine that you see in the book, you’ll find some
interesting examples of what can be done in the
final chapter, the photographers’ gallery.
there are so many different ways in which
images can be improved, enhanced, adjusted,
embellished, and invented, and so many ways of
doing it that this chapter can give only a brief overview of some of the
most basic and effective techniques commonly used in nude photography
postproduction. cropping and reframing is a simple way to improve a
slightly unsuccessful composition, or to remove unwanted elements from
an image, while a complete digital makeover of a model—used extensively
in commercial photography—requires a great deal of skill, time, and
patience. in between are the fundamentals. to be able to convert a color
picture into a successful black and white one means having the best of
both worlds, and is all about understanding how different hues work when
converted to a gray scale. And if you’re working with color, it’s great to be
able to adjust color balance, and/or intensity if you want or need to—
especially over a series of images. some people feel that tampering with a
photograph digitally is somehow “cheating”. But most of the techniques at
our fingertips today are directly descended from traditional processes, and
so surely still have a place in modern photography.
Finally, perhaps the most important thing to consider is how to
conserve your images, so that once you have finished the creative
process you can keep them for ever.
