In my view, photography is an art form. In capturing images, Ansel Adams had an artist’s eye in approaching the composition. the leading lines and the effect of light. He polished his vision of the photograph in the darkroom with techniques like dodging and burning while transferring the image captured on film to photographic paper. Current day photographers using digital cameras use the same principles when they edit their digital images using post processing software programs such as Photoshop. But there are some photography critics who opine that a true photographer will use his/her photographic skills to produce an art-like photo straight out of camera without reliance (or over reliance) on post editing software. Such critics categorize any image resulting from significant software post processing as “photoshopped”, and thus not worthy to be considered an art form.
In the end, I think a photographer should produce images that are pleasing to him/her. Some viewers of the image may admire it and consider the image to be art. Other viewers may dislike the image not consider it to be art.
Personally, I don’t care for “over the top” post processed images that bear no resemblance to what the human eye can ever realistically witness. At the same time, however, I sometimes envision a photo that the human eye could witness if in the proper place at the proper time; but I cannot possibly capture that particular scene because even today’s best camera sensors cannot match the dynamic range (shades of light, shadow, and color) that the human eye can see.
I offer this photograph as an example. In order to capture the dynamic range of both the very bright super moon and the deep shadows and dim ambient lights that accompany a moon rise, it was necessary to take two photographs – one properly exposed for the dark foreground and another exposed for the bright moon. Then I combined the two photos into one composite photo using Photoshop. I found this approach was necessary in order to produce an image that reflects what my eye saw the evening this image was captured. It was a beautiful sight and I hope you enjoy!
Capture the Wonders Found in Travel and Life Email: d300dave@gmail.com
