sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

tell me how does a photshop "trick" differ from dodging and burning and all those "darkroom" tricks? I am so sick of this elitist snobish attitude towards use of a creative process to produce your vision.You do know that image manipulation was around way before photoshop don't you. That the most worshiped ansel adams used every darkroom trick in the book to manipulate his images, and if he was aroung today he would love photoshop. There was a time when purists complained about cameras with automatic focus weren't real photography and before that cameras with apeture proirity, before that cameras with built in light meters. I'm sure the guys who coated glass plates like mathew Brady thought george eastmans first kodak roll film camera wasn't photography. photoshop is only a tool it allows more creativity, and quite frankly photo editing software combined with the ease of digital photography has revived a hobby that was stagnating as well as allowing more people to participate. If you dont like post processing that is perfectly allright.I don't like shooting slides. Just don't put down people who do. 8-)

gessman Loc: Colorado

Hmmmmm! I've seen a lot of Ansel Adam's work, and Jackson, and others, and I don't recall ever seeing a yellow tree or bridge in any of their b&w shots and I wonder why since the ability to do that far preceded the advent of Photoshop. Negative dying was available to them then. Could it be because they were trying to achieve "photographic excellence" in their work and leaving surrealism up to the likes of Salvador Dali.

Most of those darkroom tricks were used to salvage bad images from inadequate and often sloppy field work, not to create something entirely new from the process.

gessman Loc: Colorado

...and incidentally, my intent was not to "put anyone down," merely to express my aversion to fads in photography.

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

it wasn't you who I was refering to. the phrase photoshop trick is rather insulting. Look in the archieves of pop photo magizine just in the 80's pre computers and see how many abstract photos that were severly manipulated there are. Painting with light, color gels over flash heads, multiple exposures on the same negative. all were cosidered acceptable. I am not a big fan of this particular b+w/color combo myself but i will defend the posters right to do so fiercly. I think sometimes it shows more artistic vision and creativity to produce a photoshop creation than just another technicaly perfect yet seen this before landscape. what makes photography so interesting is that its a huge tent. There is room in it for pinhole enthusiasts, manual film camera enthusiasts, cell phone camera enthusiats etc. As long as the final product was origional captured with a camera its all photography. I just have a problem with even a wiff of the "unless its done my way its not real photography "attitude that has been present on different topics in this site and others. I am sorry if I ruffled anyones feathers it was not my intent but to paraphrase Sen Barry Goldwater Passionate defense in the name of photography is no vice. :thumbup:

TTKBJR Loc: Kansas

I like the look of the slightly colored bridge. I probably would do the leaves on the tree in B&W too. The bridge is the main focus in the shot or what draws the eye. I like it!

evandr Loc: Tooele, Utah

Let’s remember something; beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Anybody could have taken a black and white (or color for that matter) photo but sometimes it is personally pleasing to do and posses something that nobody else has done or possesses - namely a photo of that particular bridge altered to look like that. There is a certain sense of satisfaction in looking at something and being able to say to oneself "I did that" even if you are the only one in the whole world who thinks it's neat.

Now, having said that I must also defend the right of others to voice their opinion when it is asked for, if there is a chance that you will not like someone's opinion do not ask for it, it really is that simple, you cannot please all the people all the time and quite frankly honesty, even when it derails, is the best type of critique to get, it is the only type that will help you grow. The biggest disservice that someone who is looked to as a mentor can do is to tell someone else that their work is good and then be silent when it could be a lot better according to the well defined rules of form and function that affect how we look at things and how they make us feel.

How the bridge was colored against a B&W background is simply another art form that when done right can be quite pleasing but, like any other art form, it must be done right or it will fail in its intended effect.