Autumn Colours

[Blaze]

@Spectrum 'Natural' is very subjective, i.e. differs from person to person. I've seen people post a photo saying proudly "straight from camera, not touched up" and they tend to be dull, lacking in contrast and uninteresting. Most cameras today give you the opportunity to adjust things like colour, contrast, sharpness which are there to be used. Professional photographers have always "fiddled" with their photos, whether in camera, in the darkroom or using software. It depends on the effect you want to achieve and whether you are doing it for yourself or to please other people (that can be a no-win situation !!).

I agree with RA, the PicsArt photo is more vibrant and brings out more in the picture than the original. In-camera adjustments, particularly colour nuances, aren't always easy to achieve, it takes a lot of practice. Light, weather, contrast all affect the way you could bring out the best in your photos.

That said, when you want to take a quick snap, a bird or an insect for example, there isn't necessarily time to make adjustments which is where being able to "clean up" the photo afterwards is an advantage.

[RobertArthur]

@ Spectrum, the digital cameras of today use a lot of intelligent software inside: contrast, colour enhancement, combining sometimes three pixels to produce a sharper picture, compression. Many objective and subjective differences between these cameras. So what is natural. Back in the sixties my father preferred Agfa film (more natural) above Kodak (too bright, too much contrast between colours, too red). And back from taking pictures I sometimes think: a bit dull, mother nature was more vibrant. Room for improvement. Too much daily screen time already, so I'm hesitating: a try out with PicsArt or Gimp?

[Oldblueraincoat]

@Spectrum You didn't rain on anybody's parade and are fully entitled to your views. I believe photography is a very subjective art form and has, in my view, benefited enormously from technical advances in the past 20 years. Long gone are the days, as a 6 year old boy, marvelling at my Father developing his pictures in our kitchen after locking himself away in the cupboard under the stairs in complete darkness to unload his 35mm Kodak camera, immersed in the chemical smells of developer and fixer, finally running the prized negatives through his hand built enlarger. Then, as if by magic, pictures would appear on the blank paper as they swirled around in their baths, later to be hung on lines across the Kitchen, much to the pretended annoyance of my Mother, who would lovingly trim and mount fond memories in the family albums, showing them off to relatives, friends and neighbours at the drop of a hat.

My Dad recorded the devastation that was Nagasaki and Hiroshima when in 1946 as a young RAF engineer in 11 Squadron he sailed, as part of the occupation force, to Japan. He was introduced to photography by the Americans he met there and bought himself a Kodak Ektra camera - His love of photography began and, bless him, he passed that passion on to me.

I have taken many photographs with that camera but l think, like me, Dad would have loved the excitement, immediacy and freedom that modern equipment and editing tools give you. I take thousands of pictures every year, many of them, for me, are improved with editing which has taken me many hours of trial and error to develop and continue to develop. Many more are best left untouched and raw, usually with the iPhone - here's some l took yesterday.

DC50BAE8-FE0E-4D78-899C-D8D127D5F3EC-02_Easy-Resize.com.jpg

IMG_6893_Easy-Resize.com.jpg

IMG_6897-02_Easy-Resize.com.jpg

CE2E3983-7AC8-4027-AB0C-00DDE084F448_Easy-Resize.com.jpg

[Blaze]

Lovely piccies OBR, especially the rhu (sp. ?) /sumach. The autumn colours haven't really hit us here, perhaps not cold enough yet. My fear is that the wind will take all the leaves first ...

[Spectrum]

Lovely piccies OBR, especially the rhu (sp. ?) /sumach. The autumn colours haven't really hit us here, perhaps not cold enough yet. My fear is that the wind will take all the leaves first ...

Rhus Typhina Staghorn Sumac,(Summach) can be invasive but nice autumn colours. I do understand your point I suppose Iam just a bit old fashioned. Would like to post pics but I always have to re-size them.

[Blaze]

Would like to post pics but I always have to re-size them

That's normal because generally photos are much larger than forums are set up for. They would display them in too marge a format for screens (even a big desktop computer) to cope with without scrolling to see them.

[Oldblueraincoat]

Lovely piccies OBR, especially the rhu (sp. ?) /sumach. The autumn colours haven't really hit us here, perhaps not cold enough yet. My fear is that the wind will take all the leaves first ...

Rhus Typhina Staghorn Sumac,(Summach) can be invasive but nice autumn colours. I do understand your point I suppose Iam just a bit old fashioned. Would like to post pics but I always have to re-size them.

Would love to see some of your pictures @Spectrum - l have to resize most of mine too but find Easyresize a piece of cake and the quality of the photos isn't affected too much. There is a lot of useful information on posting pictures to the forum in the Photography topic with great tips and recommendations - give it a go and join in the fun

[Char]

Spectrum, You can open a free account on https://picr.de - upload your photos to there and then just copy the link it gives you and paste it into your post on here. We'd love to see some of your photos.

[Blaze]

@Spectrum
You'll find an explanation I gave Wilbro on how to use picr.de :

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=358&p=6298&hilit=German#p6298

@Char Is it possible to put this info as a sticky in Photography ?

[Char]

@Spectrum
You'll find an explanation I gave Wilbro on how to use picr.de :

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=358&p=6298&hilit=German#p6298

@Char Is it possible to put this info as a sticky in Photography ?

Well done - I've been looking for that post for ages, I was going to link to it.
Yep, I'll make a duplicate of that and add it to the 'Posting Photos on the forum' notice that appears at the top of all the forums.
Thanks Blaze!