Don't over-process your pictures



If you are one of those people who like to load their photos on a computer and tweak the color, or other things, then this post is for you.

I am one of those people mentioned above. In fact, I have a very hard time just leaving the files as is when I get them from my camera. However, over the years I have learned a lot about processing images. Here's my two cents on it:

DO NOT over-process. A lot of people like to take their pictures and make them look like they were taken on a really old camera 1000 years ago or carved on a cave wall with stones. Perhaps you like that look, and that's fine, but there is a huge danger here. Soon, processing your photos can become a crutch to your photography. You begin no longer relying on taking good photos, because you develop a mentality that your processing will "save you" from bad pictures. No way.

Don't get me wrong. Photos can certainly be enhanced with some work, but the extent of that work should be reigned in. I've heard of some pros say that if you spend more than 30 seconds on any image for minor tweaks, then you've probably not taken a good photo to begin with.

Another down-side is that people tend to become trendy with what they do. They see all of these pinterest-like images with lens flare from the sun, vignetted corners, or fisheye effects and they feel like they need to make all their photos like everybody elses. Don't do it. As fun as it is to do these things now and again, avoid the temptation to rely on photoshop or another tool to be a crutch to learning better photography

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