SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

I find not so much out of focus frames and and thumbs over corners as I do what look like snapshots. Fine in what they are, but not the kind of thing I’d proudly post in a gallery. Then again I mostly just look at the gallery stuff that pops up in the digest.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Those snapshots must be the only 'real' images free of all that post processing fakery our OP wants everything else properly labeled ...

nikonbrain Loc: Crystal River Florida

Very good example of Raw recovery...

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Manipulated photographs have been considered photographs throughout the history of photography, and that doesn't change since digital came along.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Almost everything Photoshop can do was done in the darkroom, it is just easier with digital and accessible to more people. Photographs have never been able to be trusted to depict the "truth" from its beginnings.

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

Sidwalkastronomy Loc: New Jersey Shore

rules and GAS attacks and are their rules about GAS ATTACKS even if it's not your money

peter.zimmerman

I distinguish between a “photograph” and a “photomontage” or “photo collage.” A true photograph is a record of what was visible during a single exposure from a single point. No objects are inserted in post processing or in the darkroom; neither are they deleted. Photo collages can include elements from several photographs. A photograph can have the contrast range changed by changing the exposure and by dodging and burning and can have the color balance altered. Collages or montages can do all of the above and select and merge elements from many photographs.

If Ansel Adams had deleted Half Dome from a picture of Yosemite Valley or inserted it into a shot of the Grand Tetons, that would be a collage.

Both techniques are equally acceptable to me so long as the artist is up front about it.

There are clearly some hybrids as when many shots of an eclipse are superimposed in order to show the approach to and retreat from totality. An HDR image is also a hybrid of sorts: two or more exposures of the same subject from exactly the same viewpoint composited together to increase the dynamic range of the final image. HDR can be accomplished in-camera today, but used to be a very difficult darkroom exercise. An example would be Wendy Carlos’s splendid composite of a solar eclipse allowing phenomena from the dimmest part of the corona to bright solar flares all to appear in a single print and all accomplished in a darkroom, pre-digital and pre-Photoshop.

Solarization, for example, is a way to create an abstract image, as is tone/color separation. Both can be part of either a photograph or a collage.

All of these are legitimate techniques if needed to show the artist’s vision and if no attempt to conceal their use is made. I won’t get into the question of whether moving the skull of a cow from one place to another is honest; that’s too philosophical for me.

—pz

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

No unless you claim it was what was taken by the camera. A photograph is something you want the viewer to see, not nessesarily reality unless you are a photo journalist or sports photographer. Take portrait photography, very seldom do you leave the photo untouched the way it came out of the camera, you try to make the subject look good, otherwise it is a snap shot.

Bobsphoto

Simple question - What is the photograph going to be used for? The answer may define what can or should be done with it. Forensic photography requires truth in the image, but even police labs will enhance a photo to glean information. If it is for art, anything goes. Portrait or event photography should make the client happy. Is adding flash an artificial means of enhancing a photo. When you adjust shutter speed or depth of field, are you using mechanical means to enhance a photograph? The answer is that there is no answer. It is up to the creator to apply and the viewer to decide.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Simple question requiring a one word answer: Did you process Kodachrome film?

lensmaster Loc: Chicago

FULL DISCLOSURE? 1. Why? 2. Why?
Please explain exactly what you would gain or learn from someone else's work flow or technique.
If you looked at a painting does it make any difference if the wrist action applying a layer of paint is left/right strong or soft? Does knowing the exact technique and physical work make the painting or image better? Worse?

Instead of worrying about what and how, 99.9% has nothing to do with YOU, look at the image. Does it move you? Does it create a positive impact? Do you like/not like the image or subject matter? Everything else is BS and not worth the time.

GEngel-usmc Loc: Spencerport NY - I miss Lakeland, FL

Well phrased, Paul. 👍👍👍👍👍

FotoHog Loc: on Cloud 9

I plagiarize my own work frequently, but I never disclose it . . .

RichKenn Loc: Merritt Island, FL

I suggest that UHH is a cooperative in that we help each other. Therefore when I submit one of my modest attempts, I always describe the settings and adjustments. I wish I had some secrets to withhold!