Psychological rest or frustration in processing images? How is it with you?

Each image can take many hours to bring out their optimal balance in saturation and tonalities. My late father in law would spend weeks, even months, perfecting one picture in the wet darkroom.

However, he did go through a lot of classic jazz music on real to real during this time and escaped from the outside world. Wet darkroom work can be something like going to a Ashram for meditation, except you need an exhaust for the chemical fumes!

The great thing is that when that darkroom door is closed and that red light is on, no one can disturb or nag you! I miss that sometimes!

So how is processing images for you these days?

Asher

Asher,

Who's to say you still can't do that?

Asher,

I spend many, many hours a week converting raw images for my business (T&I photography). So I find solace in my musical choices...If I want to process contrasty images, I listen to either Rap or Metal. If I want soft (not as in, Focus), I listen classical, blues and/ or jazz.

Its really quite amazing how external elements can effect our internals workings.

Jay Hoss said:

Asher,

Who's to say you still can't do that?

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Can and will!

Asher

Asher, there are many variables involved in this question. One aspect is your underlying emotional state. For example, if you begin editing when already frustrated, the slightest road block may heighten that. However, if you encounter a problem that is solvable, it could go the other way and serve to psychologically remove you from the original frustration enough to actually palliate the situation.

Editing is no different from any other activity in that regard. If it's something you enjoy and it goes well, it will provide rest and actually be energizing. If it's difficult and fraught with failure, the opposite will occur. When I edit using a program I find easy and enjoyable, the former occurs. Most of the time, when I open Photoshop CS2...(theme from Jaws playing here).

Hope this made some sense. The answer to the original question "rest or frustration" is "yes" and "yes."

Of course I realize that you started this thread as constructive kindling. OK.

Jay and Rachel both offered good perspectives on the subject. I can certainly identify with Rachel's remark, "One aspect is your underlying emotional state. For example, if you begin editing when already frustrated, the slightest road block may heighten that." If I am under pressure to prep a number of images in short-order for a hard deadline my perspective quickly darkens and descends to that of a laborer.

Fortunately that's not common. The digital darkroom is very much a part of the photographic process to me, and has been for a very long time. As I've become more adept, and as the tools have become sharper, my enjoyment of the process has increased commensurately.

I do, however, agree with Jay regarding the impact that music can make on the process and product. Normally I work in silence. Two years ago, however, I was working on a set of images that were going to be displayed in an art museum at ginormous sizes...no pressure there, eh? I was struggling with two of them, couldn't get exactly the look I wanted. To relax I began listening to Puccini's Turandot and voila! Since then I've turned to listening to various operatic works when working on images destined for grand applications. I can't explain it, but it works for me.

Funny, I just worked on a picture and found it frustrating, and I pondered why, when I stumbled on your thread.



First, I think it all starts with the moment when the shot has been taken. In this case it was in a rush, I spend literally 2 minutes for that snap. We were on our way shopping when I asked Karen to stop the Jeep, climbed over a wall, zipped up my watertight jacket and layed in the water to get that perspective, took 3 shoots, and went back to the Jeep where Karen was laughing because my not watertight jeans were soaked.

I had hopes that this would become a printable version, but back home I had to resign to the fact that it is nothing more than a snap, or may be better to say a mental note in picture form, to go back there and spend time to get the right material.

So, when processing, I found it frustrating, because I felt like having missed an opportunity.

Second, I consider myself a photoshop greenhorn, and this leads to a feeling of facing a unsurmountable mountain of questions often enough. I solve one and a door opens with 100 more questions.

I am with Ken on this one what concerns music. I need music to process images, it just puts me in a state of mind that allows me to ....focus?

I used to develop and print blackand white at home but I gave it up. It simply took too much time and I was moving away from film in any case. I still shoot film sometimes but I take it to the local lab and let them deal with it.
I shoot RAW on my Nikon D300 but I generally try to get everything right in the camera so I don't have to spend time in front of the computer trying to fix mistakes. Generally, I dislike post-processing to fix mistakes; it just reminds me of what I did wrong. On the other hand, when I take a decent photograph I don't mind spending time with it trying to get better colour, dodging and burning, and trying to get it perfect. Making a good photograph better is relaxing and pleasurable.

George,

I do like the rock colors very much. This is where the music in your head works. The sky, however is a signal that we all have calibrated so well. The very richness of it makes one rewind the movie in one's head and wonder about the truth of the colors below. So I think maybe you might allow that idea and see if it can fit in with you overall intent.

Asher

Hmmm.... thanks.... I have to think about that....

Yeah, the postglacial rocks and bogland (brown tones) here....I love it.... shooting from today, same rush unfortunately.... .... It was a hazy day. As for the light/colors in Ireland, youhave to see it to believe it, trust me on that!





However, what I also experience when processing pictures is a tremendous pleasure in seeing it turn into what I really "saw", not so much with my eyes.... but the whole shebang! ....creation....<grins>

What I mean is, I do not think about photography, I rather watch my steps there. Hehehe. Treacherous grounds if you do not pay attention. If I feel that is spectecular, I stop and shoot 3 pics, then move on.... Back at home, I always wonder.... for each shot, I could have easily spent the whole day there waiting for light!

Georg, these are so beautiful, fantastic colours, you can't beat the celtic light.....

Well you're stuck, Georg! No way you are ever going to leave that!

And that tiny house up on the right; is that the edge of a village or what?

Asher

Oh, Georg, you said that so well!

Asher Kelman said:

Well you're stuck, Georg! No way you are ever going to leave that!

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What do you mean?

And that tiny house up on the right; is that the edge of a village or what?

Asher

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There is no village, it is just a cottage. <grins> Have a good look.... it is the same angle~ish... same cottage! I just moved closer across the bay.

This is so beautiful Georg! No wonder there are so many Irish poets. Can you think of any who write about such scenes?

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

No wonder there are so many Irish poets. Can you think of any who write about such scenes?

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I know some, but let me get back to you on that, I have friends who are involved in creative writing and irish poetry and know much more about it than I do. I would think at some stage all of the important writers did produce work that deals with the dramatic postglacial Landscapes.

My friend Brian Mc Kean mentioned that only a few of the very older poets have written in irish about the landscapes, then again of course, some of W.B. Yates poetry describes it. However, he mentioned that most of them write about their emotions and feelings about the landscapes rather than a poetry form of description of the same.

Mostly, irish poetry, this counts for both schools, writes about the social political inequalities and tragedies throughout the decades.