All Photography is “Photoshopped”

A pretty bold claim but what do I mean by it. Well I do not mean “photoshopped” in the sense of someone going through their photo collection post divorce and removing their ex-spouse from all their family photographs. I mean something more subtle than that.

The appearance of every photograph is the direct result of decisions taken by the photographer starting even before the photo is taken and finishing with film or digital processing.

With film photography it starts with the choice of the film and even the choice of the camera. Different films have distinct differences to the point that some modern digital editing software has options to emulate different types of film.

And then there are the camera settings. My 35 mm film camera allowed me to change the film speed or depth of field for different circumstances or different effects. As well, different coloured (or other) filters can be placed over the lens to change the appearance of the photo. That cool flowing water effect on waterfalls is the direct result of the settings chosen by the photographer.

Modern digital cameras have even more control over setting with different type of exposure zone settings, white balance and specialized settings for close-ups, moving objects, night or indoor photography and on and on.

Of course most people think of post capture editing when referring to “photoshopping” even though a lot of photographer decisions before that stage affect the appearance of the photo.

There are a lot of reasons besides deception to use photo editing software to change or enhance a photograph.

A major reason to use photo editing software is to make photos appear more like what the photographer actually saw. Others include enhancing a photo taken on a dull day to look like a photo taken on a bright day, or to remove distracting elements like power lines that are not the main focus of the photograph.

The filters a film photographer might place over the lens when taking a photo can be applied afterwards in the “digital darkroom”. Doing it after talking the photo allows for a lot more experimentation to see what creates the best result. There are even filters designed to make a photograph look like a painting or drawing. Photo editing extends into the photographer/artist’s own sense of creativity.

When I first started into serious amateur photography I was very much a realist, the photo should be what you saw and not enhanced. Indeed I was even criticized for taking too many “record shots” rather than doing more creative photography. I would have described my philosophy of photography as one that believed that composition was 90% of photography – it is to capture what is there. After getting into digital photography I have gradually changed to seeing it as more of a creative process where the editing process afterwards is almost as important as taking the photo. Now i would say that composition is 75% of photography.

This is all to say that a photograph should not just be what was there but also what the photographer saw with both their eyes and their minds.

For some examples of how photo editing can provide different visions of the same original subject see PhotoVersions Created with Franzis Color Projects and Photo Versions Created with Franzis Black & White Projects.

For Gmail Users - MailStore

Special Sunday Fifth Column

I do not usually post software reviews here, and this is not a full review, but something I stumbled upon.

I love Gmail, especially it's LABELS, which allows one to put messages in multiple virtual folders. My one big concern was not having my mail stored on my own computer. I now have a very easy and simple and intuitive way to do that using free software called MailStore.

This is one of the most intuitive programs that I have ever used. I had it up and running and tested the retrieval function on two Gmail accounts in under ten minutes.

MailStore can be downloaded here.

I will still store and retrieve my mail from Gmail online but I will have peace of mind knowing I have it duplicated offline on my own computer.

Windows Big Lies

As I was contemplating Bill Gates and Microsoft’s quest to rule the world I had to reflect on the big lies upon which Windows was built.

Remember the first lie - that Windows will be a platform with standards that software manufacturers can build software to comply with so that software from different venders con work together seamlessly. Nice idea and it got a lot of us to buy Windows.

Now how many of you remember buying new cars and the salesman would tell you how wonderful it was and that it would never rust and last forever and came with a wonderful warranty. Then you would go to close the deal and the “closer” would tell you forget all that - our warranty sucks and our cars rust horribly and you really have to buy additional overpriced rust protection and warranties if you want to be safe.

Well it was like that. As soon as Microsoft got us hooked on the software interoperability of Windows they told us that was really not true and if you wanted true seamless software interoperability you had to buy Microsoft Office and everyone you did business with had to do that too.

Of course none of that is true. The only thing that really matters is file compatibility, which exists for virtually all applications. Need to share a document, save it in Real Text Format, which every word processor can do and which includes all the features you need for any personal or business document (though it might not include flashing headings). As far as sound goes we have the MP3 format, JPG for photos and MPG for video. Even sophisticated database files can be saved in delimited format and imported into another database as long as the delimiter is defined. Indeed even most proprietary formats will now work on all the major platforms, Microsoft, Apple, Linux, etc.

And now, of course, Bill Gates and Microsoft want us to believe that the Internet will just collapse if we do not let them take control of it. Are we going to let that happen.

Long live open standards! Long live open source software! Long live wikis! Long live the free Internet!