With the
coming of PaintShopPro, Photoshop, ACDSEE and other programs in that time, post
processing couldn’t get much simpler. In PaintShopPro there were many
variations of the same photo to choose from and if you could neglect the fact
that it only worked with 8-bit photos at that time, the results were
impressive.
Of course
someone still had to get out and shoot something during the sweet time of the
day when this was permitted by weather and time. Those days, time was not so
limited and we could really do things and go out, but that’s another story. One could have
this really compact (at that time) gadget in one of his jacket’s pocket and as
soon as he flipped the cap, a small but viewable screen gave him an idea of
what the photo would look like. I loved P&S just for the sake of this
reason alone and I was thrilled when this capability was finally adopted by an
affordable SLR up to that point that it allowed you to see the final image
before pressing the shutter button.
So my
latest photos with this gadget-like camera continued and although I wasn’t
thrilled with the quality it produced I found it difficult to part as it was
very easy to carry around. That need was only overpowered by the greatest need for better
quality and versatility for zooming and framing my subject. And all I had to cope
with, was the bulky machinery and lens, tripod, filters and batteries. But as the
post processing programs developed, it became clear that new pieces of hardware
would be needed to carry on the heavy duty work.
