Comments on: Do You Manipulate Your Images?

By: cole thompson

cole thompson — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:55:45 +0000

Torsten, an excellent point and one that I hadn’t contemplated before. Thanks for a new thought.

Cole

By: torsten winkler

torsten winkler — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:04:08 +0000

very well said. i have read quite some stuff about the “evil manipulation”, but you have put it in words i haven’t heard before.

i find it interessting, that people often unaware of their vision feel something is totaly wrong. but actually its not the thing thats wrong – it just doesn’t fit their vision. realizing that an other vision would make that “wrong” a “rigth” creates so much tollerance and understanding for the “evil wrongdoers”

By: Radu MG

Radu MG — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:29:54 +0000

Japanese say: “Art is the illusion of spontaneity”

By: CarolsLittleWorld

CarolsLittleWorld — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:49:35 +0000

Reality is for people who can’t handle good art.

Every photograph is a manipulation of sorts-it’s a 2D rendering of a 3D space and time in the world. We don’t see in 2D so each and every photographic ever taken has been “manipulated” in some way.

Besides, where would you draw the line? Isn’t getting good light a form of manipulation too? How about using models? Crewdson is out, for sure but, what about documentary photographers who travel and interview specific people? Aren’t they manipulating things too? If not visually, then to fit their own agenda? Isn’t that a form of manipulation also?

Everything is manipulated, the only difference is that we all do the manipulation in different ways. People who say we are “cheating” by doing this need to wake up and realize we do not live in a land where the world is flat.

By: Cole Thompson

Cole Thompson — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:06:17 +0000

James, an excellent point that I completely missed! But yes, there is several spots in Yosemite Valley that are in black and white. When you photograph in color, it is in black and white!

By: James

James — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:40:44 +0000

Cole, are you telling me that the parts in the US where ansel did all his shooting do not look black and white? I have been saving all my pennies to visit these places in the hopes I could take photos like ansel right out to of the camera. Now youve gone an ruined it all what am I supposed to do?

By: elaine

elaine — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:44:14 +0000

thanks for talking about the taboo of manipulation! yes indeed, the point of view and the way you choose to process a picture is a mnaipulation and just like you I feel like saying: so what ???

By: Kim Barton

Kim Barton — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 03:03:23 +0000

I love what I learned from you in Moab about dodging & burning…I have more fun with it as time goes on. I find myself editing each image with the vision of the mood I was in as I took it…joyful explosions of color with high saturation, soft misty desaturated images, b&w some days…I finally figured out that I’m just on a mission to capture moments of beauty or a mood, in the way that I experienced it. Simple, unending fun:)

By: Hal Brainerd

Hal Brainerd — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:10:26 +0000

American color films were based on color temperature, which varied throughout the day and season. So color correction filters were used to adjust the color. Many other filters were used, including polarizing, warming, UV haze, red or yellow to saturate the skies in black and white, and the list goes on and on. Then in the lab we controlled contrast, and/or development is particular areas. Color could be locally controlled with colored filters. Now with technology we can take it a step further, but we have always been making photographic art!

By: cole thompson

cole thompson — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 06:56:07 +0000

The camera never lies…but a photograph can.