Ian McKenzie

There is an old saying that “photographs don’t tell lies”. Well, that saying was before the days of digital enhancing. There are software programs available today that allow us to do many things with digital images. We can delete backgrounds or change them altogether. We can include people in a photograph who were not originally there. Likewise we can delete people, or anything from a photograph.

In portrait photography we can make subtle changes to make the subject look more attractive. Things like making slight changes to shapes or smoothing out wrinkles or removing blemishes.

In the series of three pairs of portrait photos below, the photo on the left is the “raw” photo of an attractive young model. The image on the right in each pair I have digitally manipulated. Can you spot the subtle differences?

Digitally enhancing photos however can go way beyond just making changes to facial features. Many software programs allow changes to be made to digital photographs. These programs range in price from being completely free to costing thousands of dollars.

The term that a photo has been “photoshopped” is often used in connection with digital manipulation or enhancement of photographs. Adobe’s Photoshop has for many years been regarded as the leader in digital photo manipulation software programs. It’s position as the leader is however being challenged by several other excellent photo manipulation programs.

I do have Photoshop as a part of my photography manipulation arsenal, but tend to use it much less frequently than I used to.

Ever since 1976 when I purchased my first 35mm Nikon camera, I have always used Nikon cameras and lenses. Currently I use two Nikon D7000 camera bodies with a range of lenses and other associated equipment. Cameras can be changed more quickly than lenses, so I generally have two camera bodies with me whether I am shooting digitally or with 35mm. I still have and occasionally use some of my Nikon 35mm cameras and lenses.

Why Nikon? (No, I am not on the Nikon payroll!) Before 35mm photography became popular, the most popular format was with cameras using two and a quarter inch format. My camera before my first Nikon was a twin lens Rolleicord reflex camera. An excellent camera in its day, but a bit big to be carrying with me on my planned trip to the USA and Canada in 1976. At the time my knowledge of photography was relatively basic, even though I did develop my own film and enlarge and print my own black and white prints. I knew one of Brisbane’s leading press photographers and asked his advice regarding a good camera to purchase.

His advice was along the following lines. “All of the well known brands make great cameras, but you will find that over 90% of the world’s press photographers use Nikon because Nikon cameras are better built and tend to take more bumps than other cameras do.”

Nikon has a software program called Nikon Capture NX2 which has features that other software programs including Photoshop, don’t come close to matching. I shoot in the Raw with Nikon. (I know what you are thinking...! That would not be a very pleasant sight.) No, I am referring to the digital format.

Nikon’s raw format is NEF. Nikon Capture NX2 allows me to make various changes to an image working in the raw without any loss of quality. If I was working in JPEG format for example, every change to an image would result in a slight loss of quality. So, Nikon’s Capture NX2 is one of my favourites and so is Apple’s Aperture, Corel’s PhotoPaint and Portrait Professional. Often I will use some features from several different software programs to come up with the final image. I shall give you an example below.

The photo on the left is the shot as taken by the camera. In the photo on the right I have used Nikon’s Capture NX2 software to make numerous adjustments. These include adjusting the following: brightness, contrast, shadows, highlights and colour saturation. Finally using the Nikon software, I straightened the photo. Some may argue that I have “straightened” the photo too far to the right..., and perhaps I have. However, my focus was on the model and getting her shoulders looking horizontal. If you look at the light pole to the right of the model and also the far right hand side of the building immediately behind the model, these are both close to being vertical.

The next software program I used for this photo was Corel’s Photopaint. If you look at the top of the building immediately behind the model in the original photo, you will notice that it has a recognisable name. Brand names, trade names, logos etc., are not allowed in any photos on photo library sites. You will also notice in the enhanced photo on the right that this name has been “painted” out. Several software programs will allow you to do this, but my preference is to use Corel’s Photopaint. In the original photo you will see a name also on the building to the right. The name is not complete, but it could probably be recognised. If I planned to publish the original to photo library sites, I would probably have to paint out this also. By “straightening” the photo, enough of the name has been deleted for it not to be recognised.

Finally I used a third software program to further enhance this model’s already attractive features. That program is Portrait Professional. It is also the program used in the three pairs of photos given as examples at the top of this page.

The final photo to the right along with fifteen other digitally enhanced photos from this photo shoot has been sent to various photo library sites for approval. Some sites have already published some or all of the shots. Some sites take several weeks to review and approve work submitted. If you would like to see the series of final shots, they can be seen by clicking on the link below.

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