[Leica] Re:Pictures, PJ, and art

[leicachris at worldnet.att.net (Christopher Williams)]

Changing or adding to photographs has been around since photography was
born. Look at the Civil War, considered some of the earliest
"photojournalism" and allot of the images were faked since the photographer
got to the battlesite after it was over. Imagine that today, or maybe it
still happens.

As a wedding photographer, I never can understand when so many photographers
say they are a photojournalist wedding photographer. Then you see images
that have been heavy manipulated in PS. Color added to B&W, extreme soft
focus, etc.. Not exactly photojournalistic.

The PPA in New Orleans was a huge PS plug. PS is great don't get me wrong,
but to be dependent on changing all your images?

Chris

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Dory"
Subject: [Leica] Pictures, PJ, and art


> I think that we are trying to fit "photography" into a straight jacket.
> In photojournalism, changing elements, adding details, taking details
> away, and even extreme burning will get you in serious trouble.  But
> when we talk about photography as art, then pretty much anything goes:
> the line between what is real and what is the imagination of the artist
> goes away.
>
> For snapshots, I think that less manipulation is better as we all want
> to remember the way it really was.  Unless of course you are a fifty
> something with a little vanity, in which a little healing brush and a
> little Gaussian blur is a good thing. :)
>
> Pretty much everything else falls in between the extremes.  Unless the
> photograph is represented as reality, I believe that the viewer should
> take the image on the terms offered.
>
> While at PMA I took a short course in retouching using PS.  What is
> accepted practice to touch up an image was pretty amazing to me.  The
> changes made with the liquefy tool were simply jaw dropping.
>
> Don