Digital Retouching !??

My first Blog post and I thought I would answer a question that has somehow repeated itself ever since I got into photography.

"Is that a photoshopped image / why do you edit your images ? "

To start with, Photo retouching did not start with Photoshop. Only a few decades after Niepce created the first photograph in 1814, photographs were already being manipulated. I shall give examples in a while. 

A Retouched Photograph is unethical !?!?

Then,
A 170 billion dollar industry wold be considered unethical, the Cosmetics Industry. Darkrooms and digital dark rooms do to photographs the same things that you do to yourselves - ENHANCE your look.

In that context, a bad looking person can never look great just by make-up. The same applies to photographs. A bad photograph cannot be a good photograph.Only a good photograph can be made a better photograph.

If you consider all photographs from the past, true and were only depicting what was actually there, You have been very illiterate.

Here are the examples I had promised,




This nearly iconic portrait from 1860 of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln's head and the Southern politician John Calhoun's body.


Need one more,

     

   This print purports to be of General Ulysses S. Grant in front of his troops at City Point, Virginia, during the American Civil War. But this print is actually a composite of three separate prints: (1) the head in this photo is taken from a portrait of Grant; (2) the horse and body are those of Major General Alexander M. McCook; and (3) the background is of Confederate prisoners captured at the battle of Fisher's Hill, VA.

Here is another,





When in the summer of 1968 Fidel Castro (right) approves of the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, Carlos Franqui (middle) cuts off relations with the regime and goes into exile in Italy. His image was removed from photographs.

Before the advent of Digital Photography and subsequently Digital Retouching, Photo manipulation was achieved by retouching with ink, paint, double-exposure, piecing photos or negatives together in the darkroom, or scratching Polaroids. Airbrushes were also used, whence the term "airbrushing" for manipulation.


The 1980s saw the advent of digital retouching with Quantel computers running Paintbox, and Scitex imaging workstations being used professionally. Silicon Graphics computers running Barco Creator became available in the late 1980s which, alongside other contemporary packages, were effectively replaced in the market by Adobe Photoshop.

There have been many other Digital Darkrooms which provided tools and platforms for Digital Photo Manipulations. 


But why are today's photographs labelled "PHOTOSHOPPED" and are looked at as unethical and cheap stuff ??

Is it because of the ease of technique due to scientific advancements or is it simply because there is a wider audience who know the capabilities of such digital manipulation softwares ?

This blog that you are reading is my own perspective of how I want to see and I want my readers to see this world. 


Why is it hard for viewers to accept the same with photographs ?


For a conclusion,
Artists and today's photographers are no different. Both make you see only what they want you to see. Photography is an art unto itself. 
Art is creative and need not necessarily be depictive.
Photographs are no exception.

To stress upon the topic, I repeat " Digital Manipulation can only make a good photograph, a better photograph. Not a bad photograph, a good one.."

Will continue writing. Happy Clicking. Hopin this post left a change.