It always irks me to see more and more photographers finding the contrast slider in photoshop or their photo processor of choice. It’s clear when someone goes overboard with the contrast slider because everything looks super black and super white and all definition in light and dark grays are lost because of the high contrast. It’s one thing when you’re going for a look, but another if you’re just trying to take “good photos”. I’m a fan of photos coming straight off the camera. If you have to process your images a ton it pretty much shows that you can’t get it right in camera. Most of my photos aren’t processed, more than levels or small adjustments. This is one of the reasons why it’s important to not go overboard.

The first photo is straight off the camera. You can see that it is slightly washed out, but perfectly fine without any adjustments.

The second photo is super high contrast. Look at the jersey on the Minnesota player (white): the previous places where there were light grays are now almost pure white. You’re losing definition on whites and blacks. Not to mention the grass here now looks super un-realistic. Sure you lose the “haze” from the photo, but is it worth the cost? In my opinion, the photo looks too unrealistic and you’re losing even more dynamic range that digital doesn’t have to spare.

The third photo is only slightly more contrast than straight off the camera. Some haze is removed from the photo, colors get a bit more saturated and you don’t lose a lot of detail in the areas that can’t lose a lot of detail. The background that is out of focus isn’t as distracting as in the high contrast photo and in turn, there is more separation from the background and the subject.

Minnesota defensive tackle Garrett Brown unsuccessfully attempts to sack quarterback Justin Siller.

Shot at ISO 500, F/4.0, 300mm on 1.5x crop body(D1H I believe), @ 1/2000.

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 @ 11:11 am Uncategorized