Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

Photoshop layers are fascinating

Photoshop layers are powerful tools, but some of you folks need to stop going overboard with that stuff. Much like the previous fad of HDR/tone-map everything (so glad that's over), utilizing layers to heavily manipulate an image is proliferating like crazy - especially in Internet automotive photography. Those shots end up looking more like purely digital creations rather than captures off an actual camera. 

I'm not against using layers entirely; they're lovely tools, after all. I just think a photographer should use layers in the correct manner. (There was a proper method of implementing the HDR technique, too, but that was largely ignored.)

For me, photographs are best made using a camera body with a quality sensor, excellent glass in front of it, and just slight corrections in post. It's all got to look realistic. Leave the abstract colorations and fantastical representations to instagram.