To me post processing is totally depends on person's ethics. It should be limited and should be used to enhance the beauty of the image. The use of post processing is a long debate over the time and it should be controlled by photographer's taste. And also when an image is published on net there should be one note about the post processing.

In my last two years serious photography I found Clone Tool is a very useful one (again using of this tool is totaly depends on photographer's ethics). The below is an example of using this tool.

Image 1


When I saw this image at my computer I found the branches are really distracting. I was in dilema whether to use clone tool to remove the branches. Then I decided as the subject is not going to be disturbed and changed I can go ahead to increase the beauty of the image.

Then I processed the image till some extent and came with this
Image 2


But again one branch was distracting the tail of the bird. Hence I decided to go for another round of processing and finished with this -
Image 3


With the final one I was happy. But I always mention that few branches have been removed around the bird by digital post processing.

This article is here to show you the power of cloning tool (You can see the difference from Image 1 to Image 3) but at the same time Photographer should be honest that he couldn't take the image as he was willing and the same has been digitally modified.

A very nice input .. A debatable point of course..

Liu

Da very nice inputs really liked it alot
now i agree with you Cloning tool is important and photographer should be honest

but trusrt me what i feel nowdays people are so insecure they will not share at all

there are many instances where i asked people about the techniques but they rather didn't tell or change the topic

here thats why admin team kept this area or workshop area where people can process for others and share the techniques

Neloy dada ....
An excellent input from u......really very nicely illustrated .
I agree with u 100 % on whatever u have mentioned above .....
I personally think that sharing ur techniques will always render u matured and matured day by day .....It increases ur knowledge and experience with ur viewers.
Deepak has rightly mentioned about insecurity of people regarding disclosure of their processing technique .
And lastly there shud always be a note about the proceessing technique in the post . Experts can always make out what processes the photograph has undergone ,,,,,,,so its better to accept rather than to be embarassed .......
That is why the Admin team has introduced this category .....and also the " workshop " where we can share each others techniques ....

Thanks again for the valuable inputs .....keep posting .

Agree with Deepakk & Jatin...

Any more input from forum mambers.. Just give your insight... No one is going to yell at anyone..It will be a great discussion... Please join .. It will help to everyone
Basically I am "purist ".. What you shot one must show that.. exposure correction, brightness, contrast adjustment is OK with me.. Cloning only to remove dust on image.
but when I listen to others argument ..I feel they are also right on their view...So I am neutral now...Something like "Jeeo Aur Jeeno Do"



Liu

With full respect to you view, this was also my thinking when I started photography. Slowly when I understood more about this I started to take it as an art instead of only photography. Now it's your right to enhance the beauty of your art. And to what extent - that depends on your ethics.

Yeah bneloy....

And even Ansel Adam also say.. Each step you go in processing the image , you go further away from the reality.. So the whole idea is , an image is successful only if the viewer react in a same way as an artist ...

I do agree Boss...

Liu

very nice article da.....i completely agree with you...thanx for sharing this with every1.

Thanks Deepak for reading all these madness...

I am seeing you first time in your avatar. You must post some of your self shot. I would ask JT, Deepak to make you model and shoot some pictures.

Regards

Neloy

Dada......ask Deepak who clicked this .... and where ??...

For some photography is a means to document history, for others, photography is a form of art.
For the later types, photography is like painting.

You do not look at an abstract painting and say that this is not real.
In the same way, when I post process my photos, I am not trying to show something real, I am trying to show something that is beautiful or something that made me feel strongly about it.
It is a work of art, a digital poetry. I am not trying to be accurate or real in my documentation of history.

Perhaps somebody who does editorial photography or forensic photography should stay away from post processing.
Everybody else can benefit from tasteful post processing.

And yes, you always learn more by sharing

Great post bneloy, thanks for sharing.
~Gunjan

Gunjan - thanks a lot for sharing your thought. I appreciate your comment.

Wow, thanks for such a nice discussion that you started. Jatin directed me to this post after a comment on one of my snaps. I have always messed up while cloning. I tried this to clone the Tail portion of the Picture that I posted. Here is the relust ( I still feel it is awkward)



The original ( which I posted in the wild life section)




The cloned one




PLease folks, leave your comments. Maybe someone can help me to better the original Pic.

Banerjee Dada - a good clone work. Now you have to use some shadow / highlight option in PS. You need to put some light on the face of the bird.

While shooting birds always wait for right moments - like bird is facing towards you, the catchlight is on the bird. bird is on a good perch with clear back grounds. hope this will help you.

Nice work Chinmoy dada....Keep it up .....

I had requested neloy to do this for me, but could not wait to try.. Not very good and I think this does nothing to the photograph.. Just trying my hab=nd at cloning .. (Only second time I am trying this, the first attempt is posted above)

: original image..



B: Cloned


This one does look unnatural as the second twig has not been cloned out and the Bird seems to be caught in a trap.. I hope some one can clone out the second twig and reconstruct the hind leg of the bird..

Personally I do not like the second shot.. but posted it here to see if someone can do better..




I could not wait further.. So I tried to reconstruct the hind leg. .. Somehow I have a mixed feeling.. that it is not correct to do this, but as said earlier.. One has to declare such cloning acts. Hope someone can do a much better job on this..

Chinmoy da .....Very well done PP indeed . looks great ...Rahil has done the right thing to the leg ...seems to be supported on the twig . Urs seems to be in the air ....
NOnethless great cloning da .....

Thanks.. I searched the internet for the claw of this bird and took help of a diagram to reconstruct the claw. And I think the hind leg is actually in air as the bird kept moving forward and is not perching.. But nevertheless, Rahil's cloning is much better.. Guru jo hai