Altering Reality

Lanatir posted this at 11:19 am on Friday, August 4, 2006 —

I start this post with a couple of pictures. The first photo was how the sky looked like in the evening, processed from the RAW file with minimal adjustments. The second is the photo after some level tweaks in Adobe PS. Which catches your eye more?

Before manipulation
Before

After manipulation
After

This brings me to the thoughts where photographs can be altered for various reasons. I am not posting this to start a debate on what is right and what is not but you can feel free to share with us your thoughts on this.

Since the dawn of photography, some photographers have strived to change reality pre and post exposure. Salon photographers pay cyclists to cycle in the sunset to capture their silhouttes and they also pay old men to dress up as monks so that they could be interesting subjects. Today, in the digital realm, the manipulation of reality is more prevalent with tools like Adobe PS being ubiquitous and graphics artists use such tools as tool to create fantastical creations.

The only stance I take firmly is if a photograph, used for purposes of documentation, is altered. I do not agree to this.

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622 views - Filed under: Adobe Photoshop, Photography

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3 Comments »

268

Comment by Silencers

August 4, 2006 @ 3:50 pm


Whoa. Is that just HSL adjustments or you did something with WB as well? I have to agree with your take on manipulation for documentation, especially in journalism; it’s not only unprofessional, it’s wrong.

But if you want to make things look pretty for the sake of the art, then yes… I do post processings all the time :D

269

Comment by Lanatir

August 4, 2006 @ 4:12 pm


Hehe the adjustment I did for that is just using a Levels layer. Pulling the black point towards the right and pulling the white point towards the left. Subsequently bumping the contrast by pullin the mid grey towards the white point :)

467

Comment by Sebastian

August 28, 2006 @ 11:20 am


Dodging and burning an image is definitely ok and help to enhance the aesthetics of the photo. Cropping helps too.

Altering reality is a MAJOR issue only when it is of a reportage nature and enhancements such as cloning or adding in images changes the entire context of the story. Furthermore oversaturation and contrast should be avoided lest it distort the actual intensity of the event.

If one is practising fine art of commercial photography, one’s imagination is truly the limit.

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