Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/02/27

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Subject: [Leica] Re:Pictures, PJ, and art
From: bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Sun Feb 27 14:50:41 2005

Bravo, Chris - Right on the money when it comes to "wedding
photojournalists" - who take the bride and groom in all their finery
down to the nearest beach and, in the middle of the wedding events, tell
them to walk on it barefoot, shoot them, and call it "photo journalism."

Yes, altering photos has been around since the beginning...and this is
the one area of journalism where, thank God, standards have gotten far
more rigorous, rather than more relaxed.

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Christopher Williams
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2005 10:56 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: [Leica] Re:Pictures, PJ, and art


Changing or adding to photographs has been around since photography was
born. Look at the Civil War, considered some of the earliest
"photojournalism" and allot of the images were faked since the
photographer got to the battlesite after it was over. Imagine that
today, or maybe it still happens.

As a wedding photographer, I never can understand when so many
photographers say they are a photojournalist wedding photographer. Then
you see images that have been heavy manipulated in PS. Color added to
B&W, extreme soft focus, etc.. Not exactly photojournalistic.

The PPA in New Orleans was a huge PS plug. PS is great don't get me
wrong, but to be dependent on changing all your images?

Chris

----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Dory"
Subject: [Leica] Pictures, PJ, and art


> I think that we are trying to fit "photography" into a straight 
> jacket. In photojournalism, changing elements, adding details, taking 
> details away, and even extreme burning will get you in serious 
> trouble.  But when we talk about photography as art, then pretty much 
> anything goes: the line between what is real and what is the 
> imagination of the artist goes away.
>
> For snapshots, I think that less manipulation is better as we all want

> to remember the way it really was.  Unless of course you are a fifty 
> something with a little vanity, in which a little healing brush and a 
> little Gaussian blur is a good thing. :)
>
> Pretty much everything else falls in between the extremes.  Unless the

> photograph is represented as reality, I believe that the viewer should

> take the image on the terms offered.
>
> While at PMA I took a short course in retouching using PS.  What is 
> accepted practice to touch up an image was pretty amazing to me.  The 
> changes made with the liquefy tool were simply jaw dropping.
>
> Don


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Replies: Reply from leicachris at worldnet.att.net (Christopher Williams) ([Leica] Re:Pictures, PJ, and art)
In reply to: Message from leicachris at worldnet.att.net (Christopher Williams) ([Leica] Re:Pictures, PJ, and art)