Post-Production in Photography

The so-called 'beginning' of post-production in photography dates back to the first half of the 19th century, when artists made minimal corrections to photographs. The first higher-quality work was created in 1857, when Oscar** Gustave Rejlander** produced the photograph The Two Ways of Life, which is composed of 30 individual negatives. The most widely used programmes for post-production in photography – Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom – in addition to basic tools, enable easier development of one's own style through artificial intelligence, which is developing very rapidly and brings with it many positive and negative characteristics.

Problem

The so-called 'beginning' of post-production in photography dates back to the first half of the 19th century, when artists made minimal corrections to photographs. The first higher-quality work was created in 1857, when Oscar** Gustave Rejlander** produced the photograph The Two Ways of Life, which is composed of 30 individual negatives. A year later, Henry Peach Robinson combined five negatives into an image of a family tragedy.

In 1860, the graphic artist Thomas Hicks created a manipulation of a photograph of Abraham Lincoln. Years passed and the development of analogue photography brought further development of manipulation techniques. From creating composites combining multiple people into one photograph, retouching faces, changing the story of a photograph, to erasing people for the benefit of military commanders due to their reputation, and so on.

During this time, many controversial photographs were created, and people did not know whether they were real or not. Manipulation of photographs at a time when people were not familiar with the techniques and believed what they saw came in handy for individuals who turned deception into fame. The desire to create successful photographs was great, so more and more photographers used wooden dolls or other techniques to add people to photographs in order to convince the public and gain fame through deception. Well-known manipulated works were sometimes quickly exposed, also due to the rapid development of photography.

Then came the period of development of digital photography, when fake photographs were easily exposed and no longer caused such excitement amongst people. From that moment onwards, photographers used post-production in photography with the aim of impressing the public with the aesthetic appearance of the photograph, the so-called style. The goal was to create a photograph that satisfied the public or the client.

This goal is easier to achieve today than ever before.

Solution and Method

The most widely used programmes for post-production in photography – Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom – in addition to basic tools, enable easier development of one's own style through artificial intelligence, which is developing very rapidly and brings with it many positive and negative characteristics. Excessive possibilities for retouching photographs have enabled some to overdo it and create a false reality that is increasingly common in their everyday lives. Teenagers are confronted with photographs of perfect bodies and faces every day.

They feel pressure to look just as perfect as the people in the photographs, which leads some to depression, anxiety, panic attacks, or even death. Some beauty companies and celebrities are trying to fight against the unrealistic portrayal of people and are spreading their message through social media.