[Leica] Is that so wrong?

[feli2 at earthlink.net (Feli)]

> May be things are not so simple. When in the dark room most of us do 
> (did?) framing and cropping, find the the right paper for the right 
> contrast, set the right exposition and developing timing and the right 
> chemic  and so on, we are finally making choices about different 
> alternatives. Only one is the *truth*?.I think not Same with digital. 
> Framing, contrasting, etc...However there are steps beyond. Modifying, 
> adding,subtracting, changing substantially the image. Where is the 
> limit. I don't know but for me that counts is the final result. I 
> forget the way traversed and the means used; It is the 
> photography/graphic,drawing or  whatever you may call it what counts. 
> If the result is strong, beautiful or awakes some sentiment in my soul 
> or a big admiration the effort was a good one.
> The subject is very important and if relates to human beings is even 
> more but beauty does not end in human beings. Any subject has his own 
> beauty or any other capability of awaking some pulsations of our 
> souls. Pictures of PJ are very often terrible but IMHO are very often 
> too good pictures. Composition is very important but not always, and 
> is a technique that can be learn mainly from painters in the museums 
> starting from this Battaglia whose author I cannot remember that when 
> finding out some solution to perspective problems jumped out from his 
> bed leaving his perplexed spouse. I try to get my mind open about what 
> could be photography and more and more the result worths infinitely 
> more than the means used to get it.
>
> Felix
>


> PS Once more I apologize for my English.


Ok, a valid response, but again I would like to restate the following:

I am NOT saying that a heavily modified photo is worth any less than a 
shot which hasn't been manipulated.
I'm saying that they should probably be categorized differently, like 
the difference between a feature film,
documentary and short film. They all belong to the same category, but 
are individual species. A Siamese and a Tiger may both be cats, but 
they aren't exactly the same.

Imagine you entered a photo competition. Your entry is a beautiful 
street shot, which captures an usual, but charming encounter between a 
man and a bowling ball.  You printed the shot to the best of your 
ability in the darkroom or on a Lightjet. You did a minimal amount of 
dodging and burning, cropped in about 10% and spotted it afterwards. It 
is a gorgeous shot. You had the awareness to not only capture this 
fleeting moment, but also did so in a masterly way, in a fraction of 
time. The composition is dead on. The exposure of the highlights is 
perfect, giving the bowling ball a menacing feeling as it streaks 
across the frame. A true testament to you, both as an artist and 
craftsman.

The competition consist of several heavily photoshopped images. Some of 
the elements in these images have been removed, added or moved to 
enhance the composition to perfection. Exposure problem have been fixed 
and the image has been run through several noise reduction and glow 
filters. Perhaps an overall tint or partial colorization has been aded. 
The people depicted in the shots have been given a little plastic 
surgery and look as perfect or imperfect as the heavily made up players 
in a motion picture. Overall these images display a level of both 
technical and artistic competence, that even shooters like HCB or Smith 
would find difficult to match.

You lose the competition. People are simply awed by the perfection and 
impact of your competitors photoshopped entry. The haunting, un-natural 
beauty of the woman in the picture is deemed brilliant and he is hailed 
a photographic genius. You point out that the magical glow that 
envelops her is actually the result of the highlights being keyed off 
the original, blurred and then screened back on top of the original 
image. You are branded jealous and a sore loser. You are loathed by 
your local community, called a dinosaur trapped in the past and die in 
obscurity.

Now, if the competition had been divided in to different categories, 
none of this would have happened.


Feli






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