Processed or Unprocessed.

On a recent upload of images, I was asked about seeing the unprocessed image.  To process or not to process is the most interesting part of photography, for me, at the moment.  When you ask most photographers  what they used to 'achieve' their image there is very little information forth coming.  A little tweak here and a little saturation there is generally the response I receive.  I have learnt however, that this is not generally true and many will spend hours processing their images - for which I may add - there is nothing wrong with.  There is no photographer out there, especially the top photographers that would not process their image.  And when I develop my processing skills, I'm pretty sure I will process more.  A recent purchase of Nik Collection processing software has been another eye opener.

So here we go..... 

RAW camera image.  The only Light Room adjustments for this image was a crop on the left hand side of the image.

Black and White Filter added using Silver Efex Pro 2 (Part of the Nik Collection)

RAW camera image.

Image processed in Light Room.

Light Room image with Super Cross Pop filter added in Color Efex Pro 4 (Part of the Nik Collection)

In my opinion, and it is only my opinion because photography, like art is a very personal. I like the effect of the filters - I think they have taken 'non usable' images and made them interesting (not camera club standard or a high standard even but better).

Ps. there will be many photographers who may read this post with tears in their eyes and hands in the air asking themselves why, why and why again!! :)