November 2009 Archives

So, I have spent the evening recovering from a cold and editing some photos I took last summer.  A conversation I had tonight struck me hard.  The technology of accomplishing the task, what ever it is, is a separate thing a separate transaction from the capture.  I was thinking of my early photographic training and Ansel's book 'The Print'.  I was working with a car shot in a parking lot, and the unfortunate thing was that it was in the cull pile... due to a background issue.  The guy sitting in the chair at the other end of the car, likely the owner of the neighboring car wasn't helping the shot at all.  The general background was fine.  In the old days, I wouldn't have hesitated to mask him out of the print and take it from there.  For a moment I considered why I'd tossed this shot, and realized I was using a different standard for my digital shot.  I was using the I can adjust contrast, color, noise etc, but not change the reality to make a better picture.  This double standard is one of those things everyone struggles with.  This time I took charge, opened it in Photoshop and masked him out of the shot.  Got a much nicer file and finished the picture as I normally do.  I don't do this very often, but no one is making a news article from the shot, and the car was special, and I wanted it in my collection of car images.  Technology changes but it enables us to do what we know in new ways, I find it interesting that the underlying power of the technology would inhibit an old shooter from making a nice shot more interesting to share.

About this Archive

This page is an archive of entries from November 2009 listed from newest to oldest.

September 2009 is the previous archive.

May 2010 is the next archive.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Powered by Movable Type 4.1