Tag Archives: art

Are digitally altered photos photography or art?

5 Replies

Time to go to the pantry, and drag out this old chestnut. I am not going to make a case for either side, I think most people know where I stand, but I have seen the debate pop up on quite a few blogs, websites and Twitter in the past week, so I thought I better jump on the bandwagon. I have grabbed links to two sites that have mentioned digital manipulation in the past week that I have read. Both are well written, and make some great points. Whether you like it or not, digital manipulation is here to stay. Whether it is right or wrong, who knows. If you like wildly glowing pinks and purples in your sunrise, then you might like it. HDR might well float your boat, but it does nothing for me. Madly dodging and burning might be your thing, but I still don’t know how to use it.

I suppose my biggest beef with it at the moment is there seems to be an ever increasing amount of people who buy a DSLR, take a very ordinary photo, then go crazy in Photoshop. I think it makes it to easy to polish a turd. Most beginners would be better served not using it, and actually learning how to use the camera to produce a better image.

There you go, despite me saying I wasn’t going to argue a case for either side, I just managed to. 🙂

Have a read of the articles and let me know what you think.

Looking through (PSD)Despite what I say above, I do occasionally use Photoshop to tart up a photo myself.

Are digitally altered photos photography or art? | Factoidz.

Is it live or is it Photoshop? — Photocrati – Photography Blog, Digital SLR Camera and Lens Reviews.

I fully expect a bun fight, but discussion is good. I also fully expect to be going over the same topic in another 6 months time. 🙂

HDR, do you like it?

2 Replies

HDR (High Dynamic Range), it is here , there and everywhere these days. I listened to a PODcast (How very 2006 of me) by Jim M. Goldstein the other day where he interviewed Trey Ratcliff from www.stuckincustoms.com/ about his HDR work. It was a very interesting conversation, but I heard a figure of 80% of people like HDR, and it has sort of stuck in my head, like a splinter in my mind. Do that many people really like it?

Here is an example of HDR.

HDR example

That is a great example of what a normal shot looks like compared to the same scene in HDR. Thats not to extreme a version of HDR. Here is one that is.

Yuck truck

So my question to you good reader is, do you like HDR. Is it still photography, or has it crossed that blurry line into digital art?


$25,000 for this???

7 Replies

This (click here) is this years winner of the Australian National Portrait prize. I ask you to have a look at the rest of the gallery, and someone please explain why that photo is the rightful winner over shots like David Sandlson’s shot of Len Green or John Cann and his father by Hugh Stewart? I will take part of a rant I put on one internet forum and plonk it in here to give you some idea of how I am thinking.

With regards to your opening sentence N, me being the proud little philistine that I am, I have to ask. Do you wonder why people the likes of my good self think that the art fraternity are a bunch of pretentious #$@&! when photos like the one I linked to above, win a prize worth $25,000, when the good majority of people think it is a steaming pile of #*!%? There are so many other entries in the comp that are so much better, and not just in my eyes, in every single person I have asked today. Whilst ever the chardy sipping tools are saying that is the best photo and the rest of us don’t understand why, art will never make inroads imho.

Really, I don’t understand it. Can some explain? I always thought portraits where supposed to engage the subject. Make a connection. Maybe it is why I cant take a portrait to save myself! To me, that photo is no more than a family snap shot. No offence meant to the photographer, I hope he enjoys the $25k.