Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/29

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Subject: Re: RE: [Leica] Cropping dilema
From: feli2@earthlink.net
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 14:43:38 -0700 (GMT)

From: bdcolen <bdcolen@earthlink.net>

> There are a couple questions, and issues here, Feli -
>First, what is this for? Is this just for your own use?

Since I am not a photojournalist and I don't do this for a living, I suppose it's for me. But just because I don't make a living at this, does it mean that I don't want to stick to the truth.


>If it is, do whatever you want? Is it for some journalism usage?


>If it is, the first problem I have is with using Photoshop to >create a 12 degree tilt "to increase the dynamic of the shot." >If it wasn't dynamic, it wasn't dynamic. End of story. End of >shot. 

Would you also object to rotating the shot on an enlarger and cropping it? The shot of the napalm girl that was discussed last week was heavily cropped. If he had also tilted it, would that be considered objectionable? If the crop/tilt would have NOT changed the content of the shot or the journalistic integrity of the recorded event, would that still be a bad thing?


>As to inserting sky and pavement where they don't exist - I'm a >purist on this one: If it's for you, insert Bozo The Clown if >you want to.

I'm not talking about swapping the entire sky, adding people or modifying the action, message or content of the event. I cropped and rotated and ended up with two small black corners that make up maybe 5-10% of the image area that I am considering to either burn black, so it matches the sky or the floor or even contemplated to clone a small piece of pavement into. But like you I'm a bit of a purist and I'm having second thought about the whole thing.


>But if it's for any purpose in which you are presenting the >photo as an accurate representation of what you saw, some form >of journalism - then no screwing around.

I fully 100% agree that for journalistic purposes the content of a shot should never be manipulated in any way to change the facts of the event that occured. But is cropping/tilting acceptable if it doesn't alter the jounalistic integrity of the recorded event? 

I'm having an internal debate regarding the tilt. I should have tilted the camera when I made the shot, but I didn't. If I tilt the paper in the enlarger and push in, is that "cheating" things to make it a better shot than I managed to grab? I still think I grabbed the correct moment of the action.

thanks,

feli
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