A lot of people scoff at digital photos that are post-processed using softwares like Photoshop and Gimp. I think what they don’t realise is that there is a lot of processing art involved in slide/print photography as well. Use of filters while taking the pictures, using different mixtures of chemicals while processing the film, and dodge/burn techniques while making a print are the very same things that are achieved with the use of post-processing software in the case of digital photos. Great photographers like Ansel Adams spent days in their darkrooms to get the precise contrast and right level of details which make their photos such pieces of art. All this processing (film or digital) is necessary because no camera lens can duplicate what the human eye sees. The photographers try all kinds of processing tricks to create a photo that resembles what they remember of the original image seen through their eye.

One of my favorite photoblogs is [daily dose of imagery]. All the photos posted there are quite excellent. The author, Sam Javanrouh, is a professional artist, so, it is not a surprise that he is so good at it. He wrote a few tutorials about post processing to describe his workflow. Here is one of them that shows how the original photo is transformed into a brilliant image. Many of us take photos that look like his original but it takes the knowledge and expertise of a professional to convert them into something outstanding.