Author Topic: Heavily photoshopped photos  (Read 11864 times)

Offline Dеnis

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Heavily photoshopped photos
« on: March 21, 2013, 09:06:09 PM »
Is there any policy against photos that were way too much photoshopped?
There are photos that with photoshop look amazing but for the rest I think the content on site should be about realism, not fantasy scenes.

Like this
http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1768022
« Last Edit: March 21, 2013, 09:07:46 PM by Dеnis »
Regards,
Denis

Offline Richard Paton

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2013, 11:36:15 PM »
Ken,

To me the above photo looks to artificial, and your correct we are seeing more of this type being uploaded. The question is how far is to far? If a photo is dark and requires a small tweak to lighten it fair enough but where's the cut off point between realistic enhancement and over the top?  :-\

Richard

Offline bendt nielsen

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2013, 12:04:06 AM »
Hi Ken, the kind of pictures like this is something that achieved when playing with the various filters in an editor and hear in my personal opinion not at home on a page as Shipspotting, I considers that an image must be edited as close to it natural as it can come, all these photographic trickery can we play with under private auspices and putting out on our own website.

Best Regards
Bendt

Offline Dеnis

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2013, 12:21:03 AM »
How about this for a difference?

ShipSpotting.com

Regards,
Denis

Offline smithy166

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2013, 12:38:10 AM »
Hi All,

I must agree with Denis - Some photos look great when photoshopped by a PROFESSIONAL. However, most uploaders seem to only posses the skill set of an amateur - resulting in some very... "strange" looking results.
Personally, I'd like to see photoshop (or any other leading photo editing suite) used to fix photographs that are too dark (as discussed in a earlier thread) - but not used to further enhance photo's to a state such as that of the images posted by Denis.

That's my two pennithworth, and I shall now crawl back into my hole waiting for the next person to come along and poke me with a stick.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2013, 01:28:10 AM by smithy166 »
Enough torque to restart a dead planet! OOW with an unlimited CoC looking for work. :)

Offline bendt nielsen

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2013, 12:43:25 AM »
I had wondered about Denis why it were not deleted for because it is a total over the edited, if the kind of images be allowed it ends up being a competition about who is best to manipulate.

Offline Magogman

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2013, 03:32:45 AM »
I favor the natural photo more than photoshopped.  I like to deal with reality although there are places where photoshopping might be used to good effect, especially with dark photos.  The over the top photos should head to the wastebasket.  Over the years I have noted a lot of photos with way too much saturation and this is as much a problem as extreme photoshopping.

Since I reap the benefits of the site without putting in any work on it I would go along with Ken's statement.

I suppose there could be another category of majorly photoshopped photos but that is probably a bit much.

I am kind of amazed at what some photographers seem willing to do to make their photos -at least in their eyes - more acceptable to the site.  Judicious restraint does not seem to be practiced by the masses.
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read the introduction and also there are about 5 different blogs of ships and railroads

Offline Cornelia Klier

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2013, 07:41:21 AM »
This site here is for shipspotting, showing ships in a natural way, as they come along. Make the photo a bit brighter, small corrections, are fine. But I think, this site here is not for some shoddy postcard images. Such images would for sure be appreciated at some forum for digital camera or a photography site, they also fit there. But not here, in my opinion.

Offline Tomas

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2013, 09:08:40 AM »
I dont like it one bit. allmost 8-bits....
But no, at least i strive for as authentic a picture as possible.

Tomas


Offline davehay

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2013, 12:11:48 PM »
Is there any policy against photos that were way too much photoshopped?
There are photos that with photoshop look amazing but for the rest I think the content on site should be about realism, not fantasy scenes.

Like this
http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1768022

Personally I  come on this site to look at ships in their natural environment and all the care not if there is a bit of railing showing in the corner or, due to a force 9 blowing at the time the snap is not perfect .... as long as the photo is 'real'.

Offline Jean Hemond

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2013, 01:10:03 PM »
Photo shop is a great software! But one should go very carefully using it.
I would even say  for its defence it is in for up to 40% of my photo interest when the light is not all there. And it is a must when the backgound is too tight, distracting, or there is some obstruction in the way. I even succeed in merging  pictures taken across a bridge erasing the railings. I simply couldn't go back!

I also suspect thanks to Photoshop and Paintshop that quite often  our photos are at times used to compose commercial shipping illustrations.  But it is quite a task to check on that! 

Offline John Jones

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2013, 11:37:04 PM »
Bendt,

I had wondered about Denis why it were not deleted for because it is a total over the edited, if the kind of images be allowed it ends up being a competition about who is best to manipulate.

I think this topic has arisen because I queried amongst the admins whether DG's image of AMORELLA that you cited should be deleted. To my eye that is ridiculously (though skilfully) over-edited and not in essence what this site is about. Ship photos, maybe edited a bit to correct the brightness or cut through the haze are what it's about on this site, not creating an artificial piece of imagery. And if the manipulation is done poorly as in the picture of 'SWIFT' at the head of this thread then to my mind it should be an instant delete, there's no need for it. But that's just my opinion.

Best Regards
John J.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2013, 11:42:15 PM by John Jones »
Any views expressed in the forum are my own personal opinions and are not to be taken as those of members of the admin team or of the site owners.

Offline Lars Brunkman

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2013, 11:39:15 PM »
Hi,

Since I often under-expose my photos I use Photoshop to get as close to the real look as possible. I also add a touch of sharpening. This kind of post processing is fine. The kind shown in the posted examples here is not.

The first image is heavily over-saturated making it look very unreal. I think it's also over sharpened as I see halos around the edges.
The second image is actually very well done, but IMHO it belongs on a site displaying maritime art rather than on a site like this one.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2013, 11:12:17 AM by Lars Brunkman »
Lars

Offline Cody Williams

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Re: Heavily photoshopped photos
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2013, 12:15:39 AM »
I think that HDR can be a very useful tool for people photographing ships. It allows you to capture a higher level of dynamic range (and therefore detail) in an image. When this is done subtly it looks really good. I don't think pseudo HDR should be posted on site, most of the time they look horribly saturated and generally just terrible.

 

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