professional crisis
is cropping a photo cheating?
people keep insisting it's not, but i'm not too sure. there's this picture i took in Zagreb, Croatia of this guy ascending the stairs out into the night. i love that shot. it ranks as one of the top 10 pics of the whole trip. the problem is that on the left side, you can see a couple of people. i saw them in the shot when i took it, but i didn't want to compromise the angle and the length of the shot to cut out the people. so, i did the best i could...which was pretty good, considering you're talking about achieving a shot of one man climbing a long staircase in a mall filled with people. so, yea me.
now i see the picture and it's sort of driving me nuts. it's so close to what i want, but those people in the corner are fucking it up. so, i'm strongly considering cropping. i know it shouldn't be such a big deal, but it is. photo manipulation is such a slippery slope. when does it stop being a photograph and become CGI? i'm a purest and it took so much for me to break down and even get a digital camera. two reasons i did: 1) i don't have a flash for my manual, so i can't do night shots and, more importantly 2) i need new glasses and didn't want to risk half of my shots coming back out of focus. so, now that i have the digital, i don't want to go crazy and lose perspective.
now, admittedly, there's manipulation with film, too. i don't know why that's different to me. i guess because there's skill involved with the darkroom that's lost in the comfort of your home. no picture matters more than one that took you 2 hours to develop. you appreciate the work and the art more when you have to toil; it's the old adage of suffering for your art. where's the challenge if, when you decide to magnify the right corner to isolate the subject, it doesn't turn out right and you can just hit the "undo" button? i guess my problem comes from a lack of respect for digital photo. it's such a pussy avenue to photography; a camera that focuses for you and no film develop. it cheapens the art process of film. you appreciate a good shot when you've had to burn and dodge the hell out of it to maximize your grey scale. it's like raising a child and adopting a teenager. sure you love them both, but one you nurtured and cultivated into this person and is the fruit of your labor...unless they're a delinquent and then you blame their father. still, you catch my drift.
there's a connection between you and your photos when you've blindly --in a light sealed room--wound your film onto the spindle and proceed to spend the next hour hovered over a sink testing the temp. of the water, agitating the developer, timing your stop bath, adding the fixer, doing final washes and then hanging your negative to dry. all of that and you haven't even seen any of your images, yet. once you finally walk out of the darkroom with your photo, you've loved this thing to life. that doesn't happen with digital. digital photography is essentially a transfer of files.
maybe i need to find a way to respect digital photography and just accept it as a different beast. i mean, is Rachel Ray less of a chef than Julia Child because she uses the microwave? some may say so. i don't know...i'm still learning my damn self.
all i know is that i like truth in art and there're too many ways to lie with digital.
people keep insisting it's not, but i'm not too sure. there's this picture i took in Zagreb, Croatia of this guy ascending the stairs out into the night. i love that shot. it ranks as one of the top 10 pics of the whole trip. the problem is that on the left side, you can see a couple of people. i saw them in the shot when i took it, but i didn't want to compromise the angle and the length of the shot to cut out the people. so, i did the best i could...which was pretty good, considering you're talking about achieving a shot of one man climbing a long staircase in a mall filled with people. so, yea me.
now i see the picture and it's sort of driving me nuts. it's so close to what i want, but those people in the corner are fucking it up. so, i'm strongly considering cropping. i know it shouldn't be such a big deal, but it is. photo manipulation is such a slippery slope. when does it stop being a photograph and become CGI? i'm a purest and it took so much for me to break down and even get a digital camera. two reasons i did: 1) i don't have a flash for my manual, so i can't do night shots and, more importantly 2) i need new glasses and didn't want to risk half of my shots coming back out of focus. so, now that i have the digital, i don't want to go crazy and lose perspective.
now, admittedly, there's manipulation with film, too. i don't know why that's different to me. i guess because there's skill involved with the darkroom that's lost in the comfort of your home. no picture matters more than one that took you 2 hours to develop. you appreciate the work and the art more when you have to toil; it's the old adage of suffering for your art. where's the challenge if, when you decide to magnify the right corner to isolate the subject, it doesn't turn out right and you can just hit the "undo" button? i guess my problem comes from a lack of respect for digital photo. it's such a pussy avenue to photography; a camera that focuses for you and no film develop. it cheapens the art process of film. you appreciate a good shot when you've had to burn and dodge the hell out of it to maximize your grey scale. it's like raising a child and adopting a teenager. sure you love them both, but one you nurtured and cultivated into this person and is the fruit of your labor...unless they're a delinquent and then you blame their father. still, you catch my drift.
there's a connection between you and your photos when you've blindly --in a light sealed room--wound your film onto the spindle and proceed to spend the next hour hovered over a sink testing the temp. of the water, agitating the developer, timing your stop bath, adding the fixer, doing final washes and then hanging your negative to dry. all of that and you haven't even seen any of your images, yet. once you finally walk out of the darkroom with your photo, you've loved this thing to life. that doesn't happen with digital. digital photography is essentially a transfer of files.
maybe i need to find a way to respect digital photography and just accept it as a different beast. i mean, is Rachel Ray less of a chef than Julia Child because she uses the microwave? some may say so. i don't know...i'm still learning my damn self.
all i know is that i like truth in art and there're too many ways to lie with digital.
posted by badassed at
10:19 PM
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