I think we have beaten the plugin thing into the ground.

To everyone who has been in on the use of plugins topic,
everyone has good points they shared. It all comes down to personal choice as to how the use of any plugin is used. I totally agree they have their place in the work flow. But I will stick to the fact that everything starts at the camera and the shooter should use his best skills and practices to obtain the best shot at the get go. in doing that you can cut down the work flow time, be it in LR or PS retouching. How ever, there are those times that a plugin can either do a task better than another program or achieve an effect that only resides in the mind of the artist.

If i could inject a thought out to everyone posting.

Sometimes we write post’s that can come off a bit strong and its not our intentions. If there is a post that sounds a bit strong and we comment to it, I think its better to consider the original post may not be intended to be confrontational. So we should comment non confrontational.
This is a great place to learn not just from Matt, but from each other.

Peace out

Ron

You’re here opening a vein and advocating for photography “the way it used to be” but you seem to forget that MOST of the iconic photographic images we have required HOURS AND HOURS of DARKROOM work to get just right. And these were images made by the Masters of photography. If these photographers were alive today they would be using the same tools you are deriding; they’d swap the darkroom work for Photoshop.

You hit the nail on the head and I apologize for being a bit heavy handed. Fact is I am tired of watching people wandering around with their Instamatics at arms length shooting anything and everything, tripping over children and other obstacles, including my tripod. Then, when they get home and realize that they captured nothing but crap, the first thing out of their mouth is ‘I’ll just Photoshop it’. Seen it and heard it too many times. If you look at the pop charts it is too obvious that the mindset of ‘technology will save me’ is rampant. What really gets me is that in spending these huge sums of money for software folks are depriving themselves of the opportunity to purchase new and better equipment (not of the do-it-all-for-you variety) or availing themselves of the many instructional courses on how to become a better photographer. If the computer must be used, as with digital photography (no way around that), it should be used with restraint and not to totally ‘re-shoot’ the image. True art begins at the moment of inspiration and conception, not when the computer starts up. You know, as with cooking, proper ingredients in their proper proportions, with the chef’s talent to mix and manipulate on the fly, make the dish. Ask McDonalds, they KNOW lazy. They were the original Photoshop.

you know I do agree with you on shooting and being a good photographer from the beginning. yes, there are those that rely on PS and other programs to make them a good photographer. My personal view is that any program you use is only an extension of your creativity and not a crutch do lack of skill or plain laziness in the art of photography. however, some plugins and programs handle certain tasks better than others because of their algorithms. and certain things can’t be accomplished in any other way. like mask pro for dropping background where difficult selections would be needed. or nix sharpening which handles sharpening better without creating extreme artifacs . so everything does have its place, but I agree it should start with your best at the camera. spending less time in post production and more time shooting is and should be any photographers goal when possible.

I took a quick look at the OnOne offering and am again faced with the question. Does anybody ever do anything for themselves anymore? Hundreds of dollars spent to be able to use fancy manipulation software and presets that somebody else developed. Here is a novel idea. Learn how to expose properly, learn how to get your DOF right when you set up your shot, learn to recognize that if it looks like crap, delete the file and shoot it properly…..and throw away the electronic crutch! Of course, I expect to be derided for this opinion, but there it is.