Exercise 2: The Real and the Digital

Project 5 – Exercise 2: The Real and the Digital

Before digital photography became possible, photographic images were, for the main part, accepted as real because the public believed that the camera captured exactly what was in front of it. Images taken could only be manipulated so far using skills such as burning and dodging, double exposure, cropping an image with scissors or paint etc.. – the range of technical skills, processes and methods for doing this were much less extensive than today. Many of these processes were time consuming and not commonly undetectable. When they were used, it was often on request and not expected to be ‘invisible’.

With the advent of Photoshop, the playing field changed. To begin with only individuals or organisations with enough money to purchase the software and the licenses were able to make use of it. Much of the public were slow to realise it existed.

As the costs became more mainstream and the software more widely available, as well as users becoming more skilled, it is almost a common practice for all photographs to be manipulated in some manner or another – enhancement/colour/’editing’ etc – and the photograph captured ‘in camera’ is becoming  the rarity.

Manipulation has become so common place, in fact, that spotting when this has been done, and identifying glaring blunders when it is done badly, has become a ‘sport’ through sites such as “Photoshop Disasters”.

Perception: Does this change the nature of photography as truth?

You cannot composite every single image that is captured so in essence, photography is still capturing a person/place/event in that segment of time. What has changed is people’s attitude to manipulation. It is no longer seen in a negative light, rather that it is something that can be done to ensure that the image is the best it can be – glamourising a portrait, enhancing colour through high dynamic range, changing the sky/backdrop – are common place.