Video: Should you ‘get it right in camera?’
posted Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 11:15 AM EDT
In the latest episode of 'Ask David Bergman' on Adorama TV, Bergman answers a question from viewer Malcolm R., "Despite editing software, we are often told to 'Get it right in camera.' Why?"
With photo editing software becoming more sophisticated and powerful all the time, you can completely transform a photo on your computer. Swapping out a sky, for example, is as easy as a few clicks in software like Skylum Luminar. In contrast, some photographers take pride in not editing their photos. Finding the right balance between an unedited photo and a transformed image is a personal journey for any photographer. Editing photos isn't new to the digital age, either. You can do a lot of manipulation in a darkroom. That was time-consuming and potentially expensive, but it could be done.
Bergman never posts unedited images. When he's shooting photos, he knows that he'll be doing certain edits to the photos. Even so, he'd rather be out capturing photos than sitting at his desk and editing photos. Like it was with film, the closer you get to your desired final image with your digital camera, the less work you'll need to do when editing images. Among the many reasons to 'get it right in camera,' saving yourself time and effort later is among the best.
There are also other considerations for working hard and making a conscious effort to get as good of an image as possible at the time of capture. Even with RAW images from modern cameras, which are incredibly flexible, high-quality files, you achieve the best image quality when not making extreme adjustments to exposure, shadows and highlights. This is especially true when shooting at high ISO settings, as you'll have less room to play with your RAW files before they break down.
What say you, readers? Do you try to get it right in-camera, or do you not mind doing extensive edits in your photo editing software of choice? If you have a question for David Bergman that you'd like featured in a future episode, submit it via Bergman's website.
(Via Adorama)