Moving on.
Although Faux News (thank you for that term, Margaret) recently altered and added elements when posting photos of protests in Seattle, it is generally considered to be verboten for documentary photographers to alter photos in this way. Probably some mild edits in terms of tonality are fine, but much beyond that would be considered improper, which most certainly adding or removing elements.
Other types of photographers are more interested in art and creating pleasing images and will edit their photos according to their whims in software. They do things such adjusting contrast, adding saturation, dodging and burning, changing the white balance, and so on.
I belong to the latter group but usually try to stay pretty true to the scene as it presented itself. I will seldom add elements such as replace a blank sky, but I have only done a very few sky replacements and usually as an experiment. However, I will alter or even subtract distracting components as in the two following examples.
When I originally posted this photo, I was bothered by the extra stump in the background to the lower right of the subject, but I wasn't bothered enough to remove it until later.
If I ever decide to display this image, it will be the second one that I will print.
Same below: I liked the image but not the two brown spots in the background hedge: one on the extreme right and the other to the right of the dominant tree on the left.
It is a little thing to remove the brown spots, but I think it helps a lot. However, it is not something that a photojournalist would or should do although I don't suppose that a photojournalist would have reason to take this photo.
What a pleasure to see your family enjoying a family dinner together again! We are going to have a "family dinner" at my daughter Alice's this evening, because of my son's birthday. But we will still be having tables apart on the deck. We are three different groups. I think it is shameful when photojournalists fake photos. I actually think it should be criminal. Certainly it is a kind of bearing false witness.
ReplyDeleteI am happy for you about the resumption of family dinners!
ReplyDeleteIn regards to your photo editing, I am impressed with your skill. I cannot remember if you told me before, but do you use Photoshop or some other program? And... if you do not mind.... to achieve that edit, do you have to use “layers” to achieve it? For some reason, I have a difficult time getting the gist of what “layers” is all about and how they could help me.
PipeTobacco
Nice job on those changes in the photos. I think the first photo seems only slightly changed, but the second one is definitely improved by your edits. :-)
ReplyDeleteThese are the kinds of edits that add to the art. journalism isn't art. Just that simple. You could put a monkey in your tree, and it still would be art. But add a burning building from another city...well, it's your art, not news. I prefer the sharp images you shared today to the ones that kind of blur my vision...I am grateful to be wearing my spectacles (thanks to Dr. Franklin) and work pretty hard to see things in focus.
ReplyDeleteNice family photo. You should have taken a photo of the food. As for the edits, I don't know how to do them.
ReplyDeleteWonderful to see you having family dinner! Sue is the photographer, I assume. Photographs are so easy to manipulate these days; you would do it for art, which is a legitimate reason, whereas Faux News did theirs to misinform and inflame tensions. They are masters at that. I didn't notice those things in your original photos, but once you had changed them, I could see the improvement. Perhaps that's why I'm such a lousy photographer--I'm not observant enough!
ReplyDeleteI like to enhance what's already there, not completely alter it. I find that choices you make are always spot on. And my goodness, those grandchildren of yours have changed so much in nine months!!! :o
ReplyDeleteI never considered how much editing must go into a journalist’s work.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your remarks. There is a plethora of faux photojournalism around.
ReplyDeleteAnd also, dodging and burning! The old darkroom days. One photo professor told us, "Remember, everything you do to your picture is one more opportunity to ruin it!" Those were the days; starting all over to produce the perfect print.
What a beautiful family photo, everybody looks so happy. I'm glad everyone had a good time. You did a great job editing the photos. If you (a person) didn't see photo #1, you would think photo #2 is an original.
ReplyDeleteWishing you a wonderful weekend, my friend! Stay Safe!
My brother is a photoshop magician and he’s taken that forest photo I posted earlier and did some magic on it to make it even better. I’m having it enlarged and framed. I love what you do to perfect your photos. You are a photographic artist.
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful picture. I love the term Faux News. I'm nicking it. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
AS you know, I like to edit. I like to edit to the point of LOTS OF CHANGE. But I also like accuracy in photos of my travel or my family. Today I did blur out faces for my blog. I will never be a journalist and I do not get paid...so not worry.
ReplyDeleteNice edits. I do this too, for things like power lines and obtruding bits. I agree with you about the photo journalism credentials, however. The funniest one I have seen is an ad for Winterlude where the photographer moved Parliament Hill so that the background would meet the thirds standard. What worries me, though, are video edits where it would be easy for a skilled person to edit reality to make a point. You have time with a photograph to look for the edits, but with video you don't.
ReplyDeleteWhat you see is what you get on my photos...because I haven't a clue how to edit--ROFL! Same with videos. :) But I see how you dolled up the tree photos and they do look nice.
ReplyDeleteNice that your family could resume family Dinners, John. We have yet to see any of ours as they live in distant states. I will admit to using photo editing software to straighten photos, change contrast and straighten them. Also sometimes just to have fun with available effects, just because.
ReplyDelete