Taking a good picture isn't easy. Taking an awesome picture is even harder. And taking an impossible picture is, well, impossible. Unless you use Photoshop that is.

Peter Stewart is an internationally published photographer with thousands of followers and millions of views. He's also a wizard with Photoshop, and you can see from these revealing before and after pictures just what sort of difference some clever editing can make.

More info: Peter Stewart | 500px | Instagram | Flickr | (h/t: demilkedPetaPixel)

#1

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

HDR bracketing manually blended in Photoshop. Nik color efex pro used for post-production.

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“I like to approach my digital photography with a certain sense of the fantastical and the surreal,” Stewart told PetaPixel. He uses a technique called bracketed multiple exposure, which allows him to retain highlight details from different photographs before stacking them together into one picture.

“These before and after samples are simply meant to highlight what can be done with the power of Photoshop,' says Stewart. "As such, I have deliberately provided the most dramatic examples.”

#2

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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Dominik
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A camera can only guess the white balance, the settings for a "good" exposure, color saturation, the intention of the photographer, etc. In the end it's all subjective and our eyes and brains do much more "filtering" than the cameras anyways - remember your last awesome sunset and took a picture? that picture likely won't look as good as you remember it was... There's a rough common sense what's visually pleasing and that's what post-processing tries to achieve. Thus there's also no such thing as #nofilter.

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#3

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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Owen
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's kind of amazing how they get the clarity. I like it.

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Peter Stewart, a skilled photographer, mainly relies on his Nikon D810 for a bulk of his work, attributing its use to its remarkable resolution and the broad latitude it offers for editing raw files. Recently, he has also begun using the Fuji X100f as his secondary, handheld camera for capturing spontaneous scenes during his travels.

#4

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

Multiple exposure blended file.

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#5

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

Perspective re-correction and power line removal in photoshop. Color enhancements using color efex pro.

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Isabella
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Colours are too saturated, first picture is much better.

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His love for street photography is perfectly met by the compact and handy Ricoh GR, while he saves his more bulky DSLR setup for occasions when he's typically tripod based and has a pre-planned setup in mind.

Being a full-time traveller, every piece of equipment that Stewart carries has a weight implication, making minimal lens weight a top priority for him. He generally relies on the Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 & Nikon 70-200 f/4 zooms as his primary optics to cover a wide to tele focal ranges.

#6

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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Matilda
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I appreciate this one as just makes the details pop

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For ultra-wide scenes and architecture, his preferred lens is the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 prime. Stewart praises this lens for being an affordable, low-cost, and lightweight option that easily matches the optical quality of many other more expensive wide-angle primes.

#8

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

Gradual orange sky gradient and color adjustments were performed in adobe camera raw. Sunrays created in photoshop, with an added glow.

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Zephyr
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Prefer the first photo, it's calming the second looks like a dragon is going to jump out at any second

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#9

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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JoyfulZebra
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The first one looks better. The second one looks a bit too hazy.

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#10

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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S B
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Divide the second by a factor of two and it would be much more believable.

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#11

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

Overexposed image with detail brought back using camera raw. Nik color efex pro used for post-production color.

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Meike H
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like both of these in different ways

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#12

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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Panda Kicki
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why do all pics have to look like a nightmare from Technicolour? Most are amazing as they are instead of chaotic colour mix.

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#13

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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RN
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Someone said somewhere - when editing photos do it the way you like, then dial it back a step or two.

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#14

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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#15

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

Various sky adjustments were performed in Photoshop. Nik color efex pro was used for post-production color enhancements.

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Julie Snelling
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like the fact you can see the person with the net better in the second one but, don't know why they had to mess with the sky.

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#16

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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Matilda
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Reminds me of the film Judge Dredd

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#17

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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Myra Garrett
Community Member
3 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The first one was a gorgeous silhouette, the second was too fake.

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#18

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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RN
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Too much light in the second one. Makes me ask why are they keeping the lights on in the middle of the day.

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#19

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

Nik color efex pro used for post-production color enhancements.

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RN
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

First is stormy, second is comonplace.

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#20

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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#21

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

Color temperature adjustment using Adobe Camera RAW.

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Christine
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The first one is the one I remember how it looked in real.

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#23

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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#24

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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Mary Kelly
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

second one is better in this one, unless it's a commentary on smog

#25

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

Tonal adjustments were made using nik color efex pro. Composite sky blended into the frame manually.

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Owen
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Orange and Cyan are opposites on the colour spectrum. A cheap trick that draws our eyes to them. ........But I still like it.

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#26

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

HDR bracketing composited using photoshop's 'merge to HDR'. Nik color efex pro used for post-production

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Mya Lugar
Community Member
4 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Looks like ne of the old artificially colored postcards to me.

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#27

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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#28

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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Owen
Community Member
4 months ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It was beautiful before. No need for FX - Edit to change 'fine' to 'beautiful'

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#29

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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#30

Photographer Reveals How Much Online Images Are Photoshopped

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Kazaretski
Community Member
3 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

honestly both of these are jarring to look at

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Note: this post originally had 46 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.