24Feb2009
i’ve been found out!
Posted by timezoneone
As the resident Photoshop geek here at TimeZoneOne, I often get into conversations about the effects on society of image manipulation and the ethics surrounding it all. Some people get rather emotional about it. Some people seem to think modifying photographs is something new that has come along with digitizing of photography. That is a huge misnomer. Massaging an image to get a certain look has been happening for decades. Airbrushing was the most common method of manipulating a photograph before the digital age. Hollywood stars have been getting virtual facelifts and tummy tucks since the early days of cinema. Retouching specialists were a part of advertising then, just as they are now. Only now we use Photoshop to alter pixels, not an airbrush to alter prints.
 Even one of the most renowned and celebrated photographers of the grandness of nature, Ansel Adams, used the tools of traditional black and white photography to influence others. His landscape photography of the Southwest United States was instrumental in the creation of national parks. His photography is amazing in both its technical and artistic superiority. But it is still his personal vision played out in silver halides, not a 100% accurate depiction of reality. His images are so beautiful of some well known sites that I think I might be a little disappointed if I ever visited those sites. So many of his images have an iconic status are burned into my memory, I would have a hard time not comparing reality to Adams’ portrayal of it.
Even in my personal portrait photography I attempt to show a person as naturally as possible. In the end, the photograph will communicate how I see that person.Â
There will always be so-called purists in any form of art or media. When it comes down to it, the artist is always making a choice in how they want to display reality.
Here is a story about some folks that have creatively made examples of advertising that have images Photoshopped to an extreme. Quite clever actually. Adbusting in Berlin.
-Mark
