- Joined
- Apr 30, 2005
- Messages
- 33,925
As I've posted many times over the last 15+ years ...
There is noting sacred, superior, pure, better, right, correct, or "honest" about what comes directly out of a camera - a cheap camera or the best money can buy.
Manipulating aka post-processing, Photoshopping, correcting, is usually necessary if you want gem color to look correct.
Even the smartest most expensive cameras are inferior to the human eye-brain system.
Cameras can only do what they're told, and it's often wrong.
Light, color, matching the camera's white balance to the color of the light used is a complex thing.
The best cameras can do pretty well, but all fail compared to the sophisticated eye-brain system that every human possesses.
Then there is the quagmire of inaccuracies of monitors on computers, laptops, smartphones etc.
So-called "manipulation" of pics is not inherently good or bad, any more than is a knife, or a car.
You can murder with a knife (bad) or chop a tomato (good).
A car can be used as a getaway vehicle for a crime (bad), or to drive a woman in labor to the ER (good).
Yes, Photoshop and other post-processing software can be used to lie, to make gems look better than they are.
But such software can also be used to correct pics directly from the camera to make them closer to the truth.
Yet here again we're hearing that all manipulation of pic from a camera is bad.
As I've posted many times, this is a lie - a widely-believed lie.
Photography can lie or tell the truth.
The honest ethical competent photographer (vendor or civilian) with even the finest equipment knows (s)he must often turn the lies from the camera into the truth via post-processing.
Yes of course, some dishonest folks, vendors or civilians, can use post processing to lie and make colored gems seem better than they really are.
Oh, and if you're nuts enough (like me) to spend $36,000.00 on a 10-point Fancy Red fire engine red FCD that really does not have any brown in it (unlike many that GIA has graded pure Fancy Red) then it's not surprising some reasonable and competent photographers would accuse you of using post processing to lie.
Who really spends 36 K for 10 points?
Hard to believe, but there are a few of us who really do spend obscene amounts for the best of the best-colored, though tiny, FCDs.
When it comes to equipment I have a Nikon DSLR D810.
The body with no lens was $3,200 when I bought it.
Throw in another 10 grand on top-end lenses and it still does not guarantee 100% perfectly accurate pics right out of the camera.
I mention this not to brag, but to inform that post-processing (call it manipulation) is essential if you want pics that tell the truth about gem color.
... and yes good lighting, and competent understand of white balance are also essential.
There is noting sacred, superior, pure, better, right, correct, or "honest" about what comes directly out of a camera - a cheap camera or the best money can buy.
Manipulating aka post-processing, Photoshopping, correcting, is usually necessary if you want gem color to look correct.
Even the smartest most expensive cameras are inferior to the human eye-brain system.
Cameras can only do what they're told, and it's often wrong.
Light, color, matching the camera's white balance to the color of the light used is a complex thing.
The best cameras can do pretty well, but all fail compared to the sophisticated eye-brain system that every human possesses.
Then there is the quagmire of inaccuracies of monitors on computers, laptops, smartphones etc.
So-called "manipulation" of pics is not inherently good or bad, any more than is a knife, or a car.
You can murder with a knife (bad) or chop a tomato (good).
A car can be used as a getaway vehicle for a crime (bad), or to drive a woman in labor to the ER (good).
Yes, Photoshop and other post-processing software can be used to lie, to make gems look better than they are.
But such software can also be used to correct pics directly from the camera to make them closer to the truth.
Yet here again we're hearing that all manipulation of pic from a camera is bad.
As I've posted many times, this is a lie - a widely-believed lie.
Photography can lie or tell the truth.
The honest ethical competent photographer (vendor or civilian) with even the finest equipment knows (s)he must often turn the lies from the camera into the truth via post-processing.
Yes of course, some dishonest folks, vendors or civilians, can use post processing to lie and make colored gems seem better than they really are.
Oh, and if you're nuts enough (like me) to spend $36,000.00 on a 10-point Fancy Red fire engine red FCD that really does not have any brown in it (unlike many that GIA has graded pure Fancy Red) then it's not surprising some reasonable and competent photographers would accuse you of using post processing to lie.
Who really spends 36 K for 10 points?
Hard to believe, but there are a few of us who really do spend obscene amounts for the best of the best-colored, though tiny, FCDs.
When it comes to equipment I have a Nikon DSLR D810.
The body with no lens was $3,200 when I bought it.
Throw in another 10 grand on top-end lenses and it still does not guarantee 100% perfectly accurate pics right out of the camera.
I mention this not to brag, but to inform that post-processing (call it manipulation) is essential if you want pics that tell the truth about gem color.
... and yes good lighting, and competent understand of white balance are also essential.
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