I had a conversation recently with my favorite bartender Brian about different versions of cocktails. I had asked him to make me a Negroni, because I had never had one before and I knew that “his” version would be a good example of what the drink was “supposed” to taste like. Brian likes to tweak ingredients and often makes his own. The classic Negroni is made with one part gin, one part vermouth rosso (red, semi-sweet), and one part Campari. Pretty basic, and if you made one with just the bargain basement variety of ingredients, you’ll get the classic cocktail. But add in Uncle Val’s Gin, Carpano Antico Vermouth, Aperol instead of Campari, and you kick it up a few notches. Brian’s comment to me was that when making a cocktail, if you didn’t start with good ingredients it didn’t matter what you did but just wouldn’t get a good drink.
I think a good photograph also needs to start with good ingredients. You can’t take a boring photograph and turn it in to something amazing using only software. I recently read a caption on Facebook that had me shaking my head:
“I processed the five image HDR via Photomatix Pro with deghosting, double tone-mapping, and a Photograph subset. Final editing in Nikon Capture NX2. This was a tricky situation as I was at the site at high noon when there was so much contrast and haze in the sky. I also did a Black & White subset adjustment to the final image as well.”
What that tells me is “I was there at the wrong time of day, the light was terrible but I took a photograph anyway, hoping I could turn it into something interesting in software.” What that tells me is that it was time to find something more interesting to shoot, or else go have some lunch.
Sorry, just a bit of a rant, but I had a really good bartender story and this seemed like a good way to tell it. Oh, and I also have a few new photos to share. Enjoy!
Oh, Tom! You’re such a taskmaster. I mean, really? Starting with something good when there’s all of this software available? Abandoning a shot that has no appeal to you whatsoever, in favor of lunch? Jeez! Get with it fella! 😉
Good analogy, Tom. You mixed this drink well. 😀
Well, I do have pretty high standards Paul! 😉
I will admit that I don’t miss (m)any meals, but I seldom “abandon” a shot when I’m on the hunt. I will almost always keep looking until I find a shot that suits the conditions. And under the conditions mentioned in the quote, there had to have been some good shadows or peeling paint somewhere! 🙂
I haven’t forgotten about getting together with you one of these weekends. I’ll be in touch, hopefully we can meet up sometime in September.
I seem to be moving away from time in front of a monitor and the software. Far more interested in spending the time I have remaining in life with a camera in my hand and raising it to my eye every once in awhile. Lots to see in this world! May miss something if I’m at the computer.
I absolutely agree, Monte. It may make me a bit of a purist, but the less time I spend processing photos the better as far as I’m concerned. And that’s the reason I stopped traveling with a laptop. I’m not about to take time away from my adventure just so someone can be jealous of my “boast” on Facebook.
Couldn’t agree more, Monte. Besides, for my job, I’m in front of a computer all day. Heck! I even switched back to JPEG. Less to zero processing, lots fewer backup requirements, etc. No flames, please! 😀
I’m with you on the jpeg files. So, no flames from me. I just read the other day where Scott Bourne thinks the best raw converter he’s found is from his camera. 🙂
No flames from here either! I’ve been shooting RAW+JPEG with the X-T1 and the JPEGs are excellent. I’m still processing the RAW files but am working on getting Lightroom set up to mimic the JPEG rendering from the camera and using the JPEGs as a reference. I’d love to permanently switch to JPEG but there’s still enough lingering doubt that I’ll likely continue with RAW for a while longer.