Pumping up the saturation
2002-09-19 by david_bookbinder@sprynet.com
Richard, I study with a master photographer in the Boston area. Two of his books contain spectacular images of flowers and other plants. Though he usually shoots with an 8x10 view camera, he manipulates each of these images in Photoshop. Sometimes he merely "helps" the image by increasing the saturation or doing a little cloning, and other times he alters them considerably. His publisher either did not ask or did not care that he had altered the images in Photoshop, rather than in a darkroom or with filters on his lenses, and neither (since he makes a good part of his living doing direct print sales) do the people who buy his prints. Perhaps he is the exception, but he says he has had much more financial success and recognition in the last several years, during which he has been using a computer to process and alter his images, than he did in his many previous years processing images in a darkroom. He is not selling to the photographer community. For instance, his books, when I went looking for them, were actually in the gardening section of Borders Books. When he displays his images in galleries, they are identified as inkjet prints, but that's it. No further qualification asked, at least at the galleries I've seen his work shown. Were he asked, I'm quite sure he'd readily describe how he did whatever he did. But the images are so good, why, as Jerry pointed out, would anyone care? So, I don't know who you have been talking to, but your mileage and his have apparently varied widely. - David = = = Original message = = = Wednesday, September 18, 2002, 3:25:02 PM, Jerry Olson wrote: JO> Why on earth would you need that info displayed? JO> When's the last time you saw a silver print with the note that it was made JO> on Oriental seagull grade 3 paper with heavy burning and dodging? JO> Developed in straight Dektol... Overdeveloped 2 minutes to get added JO> contrast... Yellow filter over the lens.... unsharp mask applied in the JO> darkroom... Archivally washed, JO> and Selenium toned for deeper blacks... All excellent points. And most buyers, for whatever reason, would not care about those processes used as you outline them above. Whether dues to misunderstanding, acceptance, ignorance, I don't know. JO> I present my work as a fine art print. Details don't matter, unless the JO> purchaser of the print asks. But mention to a prospective buyer that you pumped up the color by using saturation controls in PS, or by using a color enhancing filter and it WOULD matter to many, many more people. Do not ask me why. Ask the general non-photographer public. But it does. And that's my point. What we, within the photographic-artist group, feel/debate/discuss amongst ourselves is one thing. How people perceive these newer processes and the application of them, is another. Should it matter? Is there a real difference when it all boils down? Perhaps not. But the perception out there amongst others, which I have found when talking to people, is that there is. Best regards, Richard mailto:richard@... ___________________________________________________________ Sent by ePrompter, the premier email notification software. Free download at http://www.ePrompter.com.