Saturday, February 12, 2011

Foalhood Dreams I



Another photo originally from the reject pile. I cropped it a little bit and decided to leave in the scrawny tall tree on a whim. I still can't decide if it's distracting or simply properly balancing, though.

I processed this one on the under-exposed side of things, dropped saturation level, and boosted the black clipping for a silhouette. A touch of extra brightness to give it that sunlit glow.

And then I did something a little crazy--something I've never done on a photo before. I decided there was too much detail. Too much sharpness. So I used noise reduction technology to give the pixels and the colors some softness while keeping the edges crisp. I'll admit that I *love* the effect of that on the trees, but I'm still trying to decide if I've crossed some invisible line into digital art-photography I'd never intended to cross.
Posted by Emma at 9:21 AM
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Judy · 737 weeks ago

Some people are still resisting the digital age...however, many are accepting that most photos are doctored these days...it's really hard to tell the difference...
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Emma_THS 54p · 737 weeks ago

Maybe I'll sound like a hypocrite, but I tend to think that I don't do any hardcore photoshopping or any real doctoring--except perhaps on a rare exception. For instance, for me there are "levels of digital": 1 being making changes that could be done very easily in a darkroom or with traditional low-tech methods. 2 are changes that are possible in a darkroom or through low-tech means, but would take a lot of finesse or a good deal of expertise to pull off. Stage 3 is where the line starts to come in, involving changes that actually change the content of the image enough to make it technically a different image, but the changes do not involve the main focus of the photo and are only done to subtly clean or enhance the image (such as removing a dust spot or powerline, etc.). 4 involves digital processes like digital painting, manipulation, alteration--things that dramatically and irrefutably change the content of the image, and often not for subtle enhancement. As I would consider it, the highest I ever go is stage 3. However, there are traditional methods to soften an image like I did here--paper quality, techniques with enlargers, different developing methods, so it's kind of a toss-up I guess.

Anyway, the effects of the digital age on the process and results of photography is always a very interesting topic. =)

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