The image below is over processed.
That is according to me, as their is no reliable or logical measure for this. Each to their own.
The reason I feel it is over processed, is because I know how much effort I put into it’s processing. Which lines I crossed.
Taken with the “Hard” sharp EM5 mk1 sensor and the sublimely sharp 75mm at f5.6 (as near technical perfection as I have at hand), the temptation was to follow the image’s potential and push the envelope.
Showing off?
I guess there is always an element of that when processing work for others, otherwise we would not bother at all.
Technically perfect at A2.
There is nothing overtly fake about the image. Nothing added or removed, nothing modified in the true “Photo Manipulation” sense. The sharpening, mostly applied by brush tool in Lightroom is supplemented by added clarity and contrast, highlight recovery and selective colour saturation.
Nothing was pushed to the maximum settings available, not even close. Even the dreaded M43 noise is basically invisible at large print sizes and there are no sharpening artefacts. I just felt I went back to the sharpening “well” once too often.
These have always been the processing tricks photographers have used to enhance the perception of perfection in their images, but at what point is there more make-up than face?.
Personally, guiltily, I like the effect, but equally I felt compelled to come clean and share my unsettled feelings of “tricking” you, the viewer.