• "Art photography: When 'reality isn't good enough'": CNN article. Thoughts?
    8 replies, posted
[URL="http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/10/living/fine-art-photography-manipulation/index.html?iref=storysearch"]Art photography: When 'reality isn't good enough[/URL] This forum strikes me as a bunch of photographers deeply entrenched in the work done on a photo after the shutter is pressed. I'm wondering what you all think of this article?
[quote]Adams, a piano player, believed that photographers should use every part of the process to create an image. "He said that the negative from your camera is the musical score and it tells you where to go," Mellia said. "When you make the print, you go in the darkroom and that's the actual performance of the music."[/quote] Nail on the head. It's an otherwise very surface-level article. "Photography is easy, art is not. Don't confuse the two."
Sorry, got distracted by this [IMG]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120808035026-mike-mellia-psychological-portrait-vertical-gallery.jpg[/IMG] It looked too familiar.... [QUOTE=daijitsu;32005971] [t]http://i.imgur.com/2bYZi.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/Isu05.png[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/9MK29.jpg[/t] [IMG]http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/6325/screenshot2012020423353.png[/IMG] [IMG]http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/2206/screenshot2012071513473.png[/IMG] [/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Ohfoohy;37201055]Sorry, got distracted by this [IMG]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120808035026-mike-mellia-psychological-portrait-vertical-gallery.jpg[/IMG] It looked too familiar....[/QUOTE] I don't get what's so special about that photo. Boring lighting, no thought to framing and an uninteresting subject, not to mention the weird vignette. Maybe it was taken with a loads of expensive softboxes and flashes, and a fancy medium format digital and lens, so all the gear nuts worship it.
[QUOTE=bopie;37197381]Nail on the head. It's an otherwise very surface-level article. "Photography is easy, art is not. Don't confuse the two."[/QUOTE] This is true for all art: there is the handywork and the art. Art is, in my mind, is a creation with the purpose of inspiring deep thought and emotion. The handywork is the method of getting there, some forms requiring little effort, some requiring much. The handywork should be respected, but it is not art. The art can be done just fine with post processing and editing, but those I respect the most are those who sacrifice so much work to create a shot that is as sublime as the post processed one, without any such techniques. This is when good handywork mixes with good art. There's nothing wrong with editing the hell out of your pictures, but like synth orchestras are to real orchestras, what you lose is the work, and often within that work the spirit of the artist.
My thought is that everything that gives a picture merit is done before you hit the shutter. Barring conceptual photographers who spend great amounts of time and energy stitching together multiple photos, I think everything done in post production only serves to enhance the aesthetics rather than the actual artistic merit of the photo.
aesthetics of the original exposure matter most because after all, you can sugar coat a shit but in the end it is still a piece of shit.
In my perspective, getting a great-looking shot with minimal post-processing is an art form. One that belongs to the roots of photography. You can take a few shitty pictures and then combine them in an awesome looking composition, but to me, that would just be Photoshop instead of photography.
late to the party I think that the balance of "getting the best image you can at exposure" to "I can fix this later"/"I need to complete this to meet my vision"/"there's not enough mountain lions at my birthday party" is a very subjective and per-situation basis. Clearly situation A fits to reporting and such, though I'd definitely consider the raw captures found in national geographic to be nothing short of art at times. Conceptual artists vary wildly in what they edit and how, it's not really fair to lump them together. on this note though, I'm not even sure what to classify HDR rapists [QUOTE=Ohfoohy;37201055]Sorry, got distracted by this [IMG]http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120808035026-mike-mellia-psychological-portrait-vertical-gallery.jpg[/IMG] It looked too familiar....[/QUOTE] jegus crisp
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