I just read this interesting blog post…..it is a discussion that Peter and I have often. What do you think?
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I just read this interesting blog post…..it is a discussion that Peter and I have often. What do you think?
pamphotography 
I felt the author had great disdain for the ex-contest winner. If the competition for the best landscape photo had rules against digitally altering the photo, and he didn’t abide by the rules, then it was fitting that he surrender the prize. However now that photos are digital and graphic art is digital, the barrier between the two disciplines is going to become more and more permeable. The author wants there to be a categorical difference between the photography and graphic at, but I think it’s more of a continuum with one blending into the other.
Hi Deb- I couldn’t agree with you more. I think this ties back to the question of “is photography art?” which began when photography was first invented. I don’t believe as photographers we can have it both ways – if it is an art, then we should be allowed to explore all the artistic avenues that photography affords us. I personally have no interest in “documentation photography”….I think you need to strive to capture an emotion or feeling, and if altering an image allows you to do so, then you should explore that as an artist.
I thought this discussion was long over but, apparently, not. I, too, agree with Deb. (I certainly wouldn’t call Photoshop a “crude lipstick” as the author did.) Have to admit, sometimes I feel envious when my fellow photographers in my camera club, who are so adept at Photoshop and HDR enhancements, show their enhanced photos. Their software expertise is at a level far exceeding mine. It’s something to strive for, always room for improvement and learning. At the same time, I am striving to “get in right in camera.” So, Deb, your comment about it “being a continuum with one blending into the other” is well taken. There is room for both in photography–the so-called “purist” and the artistic; competitions should account for both in their rules and judging.
Hi Loretta – your touch on something that Peter and I have been going back and forth on. He takes more great photos – I take more good ones. However, my Photoshop skills have surpassed his (after many hours of on-line training, books, magazine, and experimentation) – that I now create more “great” images using post-processing techniques. I consider myself more on the artistic end of the spectrum….but at the end of the day, if my images are sharp, it’s a lost capture.
Thanks for sharing this post with us,nice work.good luck.