What if Photoshop doesn't exist?

What if the photographer shoots a single frame and it remains unaltered, is that considered a true photograph?

Sure, it's a true photograph. But that just makes it a true lie. Every photograph is such a small fragment of anything resembling "truth" that we might as well treat it as a lie.

A photograph can be true within itself -- it can be a fair and accurate representation of what was inside that frame at that moment in time. Does that make it true? It omits an entire world, and it omits all time but the moment of exposure. It might represent the photographer's honest and best effort to represent the situation properly, and it might succeed, but we cannot know that. If I select a single sentence from Moby Dick to represent the novel, is it "true"? Is it even a reasonable question to ask?

If I selected honestly, as fairly as possible, and with great skill, I might be able to convey some small sliver of the essence of the book to you with that selected sentence, perhaps. It certainly could not convey the entire sense of the book, however. At best, I can fail approach the whole truth. If I select a different sentence, I could convey an utterly slanted idea of the book to you, at worst I could tell a complete and utter lie to you, with no part of the truth. But still, both sentences would be unaltered fragments of the book. The would be, in that sense, true. They would be "unphotoshopped".
 
Framing can be deceiving...

Palin-2008-Reuters.jpg
 
My point exactly. Photographers have lost site of what makes a good photo. I have no problem with photoshop, and I still use it today. However, as I walk down the streets of Paris, I see advertisements every day that are OVER photoshopped, to the point that they don't even demonstrate the product in its reality.


And of course pre 1990 (release of adobe photosop 1.0) no billboard ads "stretched" reality did they ??
 
Some people took this post as an attack - something it was never meant to be. I created a series of photographs based upon the basics of photography, rather than based upon a photographers skills to delete, blend, move, or create pixels in photoshop. Again, I have used photoshop heavily in the past. However, something I have noticed when people see our gallery photos or the photos in our commercial book, they have a great response to the fact that they are created without photoshop. Photoshop is a great tool that will remain in my toolbox. Yet it is just a tool, not a doctor...
 
I liked them a lot! Very nice shoots...maybe they are right about the technology and the digital world...but I like the result. Know how to use photoshop or any other product is also part of an expertise...if you have it.
 
All that would be different- Aldus Photostyler would not have gone under.
 
My two cents...

Dodging
Burning
Contrast adjustment
Perspective control
Expanding & contracting Tonal range.
Grain managment

All image manipulation done in the darkroom, all done in photoshop, all done by the masters of both media. I probably miss film as much as anyone, but I'm also enjoying working in the new world of digital photography.

Hand coloring B&W prints was being done in the 1800's. They were photoshopping before Photoshop was cool.
 
My two cents...

Dodge
Burn
Contrast adjustment
Perspective control
Expanding contracting zonal range.
Grain managment

All image manipulation done in the darkroom, all done in photoshop, all used by the masters of both media. I probably miss film as much as anyone, but I'm also enjoying working in the new world of digital photography.

Hand coloring B&W prints was being done in the 1800's. They were photoshopping before photoshop was cool.

AND...whats with all these people cheating by using AF lenses? or AE? Metering? for that matter...why aren't people still loading film sheets one plate at a time....damn hipsters and their roll/cartridge film.
 
Hey, pixmedic, I just recently learned that collodion was actually invented as a wound dressing! And some "liquid bandaid" products today are basically collodion even now.

Just add silver halides and.. bam, wet plate photography!
 
Hey, pixmedic, I just recently learned that collodion was actually invented as a wound dressing! And some "liquid bandaid" products today are basically collodion even now.

Just add silver halides and.. bam, wet plate photography!

rigid collodion is also used in the theater and movie industries for fake scars. it wrinkles the skin as it dries, and looks just like healed scars. the Joker from "the dark knight" had his facial "scars" done with rigid collodion. i havent personally seen it used in the field, but i HAVE seen doctors in the ER use a variant of it for clean lacerations. just like superglue.
 
Iodine and Mercury, ftw! Mad as a photographer, dag's true old skool, biatch!
 

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