Experiments in post-processing (preparations for SoFoBoMo)

Brown and round, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Red berries, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Brownish plastic bag, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Usually I don't do heavy post-processing to my photographs, trying to maintain a natural look. But recently I have started to do some experiments with more dramatic post-processing. Often I haven't really liked the results, although the images may have had more impact than the original ones.

Today the conditions were such that all images I took were more or less lifeless, so I had to do something. After some experimentation in LightZone, it appeared that increasing the local contrast and selectively brightening the colors made the difference from flat images to moderately lively images.

Here are three such images, all processed approximately the same way, although the final "heaviness" of the processing changes from image to image.

One reason for this experimentation is to explore the limits of what I'm ready to do with my images. In the SoFoBoMo project I think some post-processing is needed to get the impact I want, and thus I need at least a rudimentar grasp on what is possible with the tools I have available (iPhoto, LightZone, Photoshop Elements etc.).