Postprocessing
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Postprocessing generally refers to alterations to digital images in a software application such as Adobe Photoshop or Nikon Capture. Postprocessing is analogous to alterations and development in a wet darkroom, which is generally referred to as processing. Postprocessing is often abbreviated to PP. The term postprocessing acknowledges that a degree of processing is already done in camera. Postprocessing can also refer to digital enhancement of images captured on film, developed in a wet darkroom and scanned.
Many of the terms used in postprocessing reflect their origins in wet darkrooms
Postprocessing includes some or all of the following steps:
- Development
- Development of Raw images
- Setting the colour space
- Correction
- Colour correction including white balance correction
- Exposure correction, such as with curves, levels or tonemapping
- Noise reduction
- Capture sharpening
- Dust removal and other repairs due to faults with the image
- Enhancement
- Enhancements to the image as a whole, such as smoothing
- Selective enhancements to parts of the image, such as burning in, holding back, colour enhancement, and other changes involving masking.
- Digital manipulation
- Application of special effects, including colour manipulation
- Alterations to the content of the image, such as cloning
- Combination of more than one image, such as photo-montage using layers, or introduction of new, non-photographic elements, such as text, shapes or flares or clouds, or 3D rendered elements.
- Final image preparation
Various disciplines of photography allow for more or less postprocessing. Photojournalism for example, is a discipline which insists that no modifications are made to the content of the image. Therefore, it is generally considered acceptable to perform colour correction but not colour manipulation, and to capture sharpen the image, but certainly not to perform selective enhancements.
