Processing Trends

As with most forms of art, there are trends in photography and photoshop. I've decided to list whats in and whats out, just from my observations:

Out: Heavy vignetting

Adding vignetting became popular a couple of years ago and unfortunately many people seemed to think the heavier the better. Luckily I have noticed more of a move towards light vignetting or none.

Airbrushed skin


yes I have started to see a trend in magazines towards completely natural skin, wrinkles, pimples and all. I'm in two minds about it, while I don't want to see anyones pimples, and I believe people have the right to want their skin to look good, for too long it has been going far too overboard. Right next to the magazines with natural skin was one with a woman with super smooth, bright white/overly dodged eyes. Ah. People are getting more skeptical about photography now and I think when people start questioning if every photo is photoshopped, even photos that aren't, there has to be a turn towards the more realistic.

IN
HDR
Love it or hate it, HDR is here to stay. I myself have moved away from it mostly because I only ever did single raw hdr processing (not true HDR) and the new photomatix made this difficult. Anyway there is loads of bad HDR out there, mostly people going way overboard with the effect. But there is some great HDR, have a look at these examples (note the light vignetting on the image below).


Mare d' autunno - The sea in autumn by Gigapix

There is another relatively recent trade to use HDR to create high contrast, detailed and moody black and white images. For example


The Gibbet by Simon Crubellier

Portraiture:
Muted/soft tones
A big one this last year or so...I find muted tones difficult to mimic. I think a lot of it is in the lighting. Another one that often ties in with this is smooth, white skin, as well as a trend towards cooler skin tones.


Bride Dolls/Ed magazine by Simon Pais-Thomas

Untitled - Chrissie White
this one is also an example of backlighting/haze. Note how she is looking out towards the edge of the frame, generally a composition no no. I like it...it creates tension in the image, and its good to buck the trend. Would it be better if she had turned her head the other way? you be the judge.

Backlighting/haze
I've seen stronger examples then the one I posted below, but I love this picture.


Opus by Fredirico Erra

Bokeh
Added bokeh in processing is a common lately. I've mostly noticed it in portraits. You can get bokeh packs from deviantart resources and add them in much like a texture I assume.


Eyes Wide Shut by Mishgon

Cross Processing/Contrast
What started out in the 80s by processing slide film as colour negative, is now mimicked in photoshop. Compare contrasty portraits with soft/muted ones.


Summer Smile by Sekator

And finally
Film - particularly medium format/square format
In the race for more mega pixels and faster shutter speeds, a lot of people have turned to film. Superior image quality, little quirks that develop a following (such as the holga) and purely the enjoyment of taking time to take and process an image, film is making a comeback.



Berries in the Parking Lot - by Nome Alice

Take the time to view the photostreams of the people I have posted above. Most of them are photographers who I follow because of their interesting images.