the question is am i as good as i want to be?

[harhar]

Photo Forensics Software | Fourandsix Technologies - Photo Tampering throughout History

Photoshopping and darkroom editing have been around for forever.

So I fall into the group of making the photograph appear the way I want it to.

Like painters and musicians there is something to be said about reproducing the "actual." And how that takes a lot of skill.

But once you have a grasp of what is "actual," you can add your own style, your own flair.

For me since I'm self taught, it's everything at once. Although I use photoshop, I believe it's important to get it "right" at the source first, both compositionally and technically. It's just a better base to work from.

After a few years I have a more developed eye, but still need to work on getting better. I'm at the point now where I'm partially limited with my gear. I need a 30mm prime and a flash and I'll be set for a long time.

[bkern1989]

Personally, I edit all of my pictures with the editing software that my computer provides me. Maybe it's just the fact that I've got a simple point-and-shoot camera, but I always decide that my pictures look much better if I edit them. I don't know if I've ever taken a picture, uploaded it to the computer then immediately uploaded it to flickr. I think I've always edited it in one way or another before uploading it to a picture sharing website. If there are any pictures that I do leave as is, they would probably be simple pictures of clouds.

Though when I think about it, I don't know if it's the fact that I'm not happy with the way the photo looks or if it's just a habit for me to edit the photo. I guess I really don't look at the picture enough before editing it. I don't know...maybe I should start.

[mathjak107]

i kind of liken it to when i first started out as a musician. i played what i liked and i thought whatever i did was pretty good, so did family and friends.

the truth was in a world of good muscians i really did suck. needless to say i didnt work much in the early years once i had to be compared with others who were so much better..

as i got better and better and turned pro eventually i had to play whatever others wanted to hear or i still worked very little. i still played what i liked but most of it i kept for myself and friends .

i look at our photography the same way. there is what we do for ourselves and then there is what we do for others.

the photos we offer for sale on our site are pretty much what we think others will like and represent the best we can do at that time with our skill set both in the field and in post processing..

all our photos have an end goal of who they are for . like anything thats marketed you need a target group.

we need to do what we think will attract attention and sell if we are doing it for others..

while its not our lively hood at all selling photos it gives us a target and goal to reach for. we have commercial sites that utilize our photos because its what they like. we have a deal with an hdr software company and our photos are packaged inside their software as examples because its what they like.

sears sponsered auto shows here in long island use us because they like the hdr look we do on cars so we do what they like.

its all a matter of where you want your photography to go and who you are doing it for. in a world of me too's whatever you do you have to be good at and your stuff has to scream look at me if its being done to attract others .

to be honest,the things i post are what represent the best i can do at that moment. a year from now we may go wtf was i thinking when i thought that was good. but i dont post things unless i think others will like it. we all have those shots that mean something to us that arent great or attention getting but unless they are able to convey that same emotion to others i dont see a whole lot of point for posting something that isnt represented by the best i can do .

that means those over exposed, blown out , under-exposed crushed , soft ,blurry photos of things that mean something to me will never see the light of day for strangers.

thats only my opinion how i do things and there are loads of people on the opposite side of the coin that are just as right. its only what i do, not what should be done.

there are sites like city data where beginners can be just as at home posting their best even if it is on a beginner level and thats fine because its all fun.

there are other sites where that kind of stuff would be more of an annoyance then anything world class photographers would want to see.

it all depends on the goal of why you are posting and where.

as such marilyn and i do put ourselves under alot of self imposed pressure to constantley learn and improve upon our field skills and develop our processing skills to keep getting new fresh ideas,looks and skills that we can use to make us standout from the rest as eventually when we retire early shortley our goal is to start a photography business. targeting a certain segment.

not everyone likes everything we try ,in fact not everything we try we like but its all part of the learning curve of experimenting.

each year we go back and see if there is a difference from the previous year. if not then we know we have to put more time in advancing our skills as there is sooooooo much we want to learn but are limited by our available hours.

i find it amazing that marilyn who had no interest in learning anything more than the "p" setting on her camera and definetly had no interest in learning post processing did a complete turn around and without ever picking up a book or an article just migrated on her own into shooting manual on her camera out of need and now cranks out stuff on the computer thats really good and learned by just watching what i did after i spent hours learning in the first place.

thats why i feel looking at others work who are above your level of skills and being with people who are above your level will elevate you all by itself if you want to be elevated and these forums can be a huge source of learning if your receptive to it and want to advance..