Showing posts with label opinion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opinion. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Opinion~ How Much Do I Edit?
7:50 PM | 
Posted by
carrie |
Sometimes working in my profession is a wonderful thing-- I get to work with wonderful clients and see them at some of the most important moments in their lives. The new babies, graduating seniors, couples on the verge of marriage are all wonderful reasons to love photography.
However, there is a side of photography that is much less a positive, when it is image manipulation that can give young girls negative body images. Actress, and Minneapolis native Rachel Leigh Cook recently spoke out about image manipulation in Hollywood and in the media, and I feel that I need to address this in connection to what I do.
I pretty much do at least some editing on every photo that I give you, and pretty much every photo that I use for myself. Primarily I do simple color correction, vignetting, cropping etc. But the side that I have to use a careful balance with is when it comes to further editing that may change any features of your face or body. In photography magazines and forums I see countless ads for software to get rid of freckles and wrinkles, make eyes larger, lips bigger, eyes brighter, bodies thinner.
However, there is a side of photography that is much less a positive, when it is image manipulation that can give young girls negative body images. Actress, and Minneapolis native Rachel Leigh Cook recently spoke out about image manipulation in Hollywood and in the media, and I feel that I need to address this in connection to what I do. How much do I edit?
I pretty much do at least some editing on every photo that I give you, and pretty much every photo that I use for myself. Primarily I do simple color correction, vignetting, cropping etc. But the side that I have to use a careful balance with is when it comes to further editing that may change any features of your face or body. In photography magazines and forums I see countless ads for software to get rid of freckles and wrinkles, make eyes larger, lips bigger, eyes brighter, bodies thinner.
I'll admit, I brighten eyes, brighten teeth, soften a few wrinkles, and I remove a ton of blemishes-- mostly baby blemishes. Milia are tiny white spots that appear on at least half of baby's faces, and can draw focus in a newborn photo away from seeing just how precious and beautiful your new little one is, and onto the tiny, white bumps that appear right on schedule for your newborn session.
In this photo of my own precious son at about a month old, he looks adorable- even with the milia on his face. However, in the edited version I have simply: cloned away the bumps, smoothed his skin a bit, and brightened his eyes just a touch. However, he still looks like him, which is my point. I would never and will never change the things that make you, you. Why would I mess with God's good work?
In this photo of my own precious son at about a month old, he looks adorable- even with the milia on his face. However, in the edited version I have simply: cloned away the bumps, smoothed his skin a bit, and brightened his eyes just a touch. However, he still looks like him, which is my point. I would never and will never change the things that make you, you. Why would I mess with God's good work?
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Saturday, September 11, 2010
Remembering September 9/11
As a person who deals with visuals every day, I would be remiss if I didn't mention all of the images of the September 11th tragedies that are replaying today on television, Internet and any other media device out there. These photos and videos are still a shocking sight, even all of these years later. They are so striking, that it is easy to find yourself trapped in them once again, as we all were on that day, and in the many days after.
However, I would like to encourage you all, to look, to remember and honor, but to not get bogged down in the sadness, fear and morbid curiosity that can come from seeing something so horrible painted in front of you. I do not think that those that lost their lives, or those that lost loved ones would want us to live in that fear and have those images running through our minds as we lay our heads down to sleep tonight.
So balance out the sadness by looking at photos of your children when they were tiny, look at images of this Great Land that everyone came together to protect and preserve 9 years ago today, and honor those lost and those left behind with your appreciation of what we still have.
However, I would like to encourage you all, to look, to remember and honor, but to not get bogged down in the sadness, fear and morbid curiosity that can come from seeing something so horrible painted in front of you. I do not think that those that lost their lives, or those that lost loved ones would want us to live in that fear and have those images running through our minds as we lay our heads down to sleep tonight.
So balance out the sadness by looking at photos of your children when they were tiny, look at images of this Great Land that everyone came together to protect and preserve 9 years ago today, and honor those lost and those left behind with your appreciation of what we still have.
Monday, September 6, 2010
What is it about these two photos?
Is one of these really better than the other? A recent trip to the Lyndale Park Rose Garden in South Minneapolis gave me perhaps my new favorite photo of my little son, finally feeling well after over a week of illness and delighting in the cool wetness of a fountain.
The black and white is classic, simplified, and allows me to focus on that look of sheer delight on his face, and the way that he always holds his hands when he laughs like that. But the color version lets me see how brown his hair is, the way his cheeks get rosy when he is busily buzzing around as only toddlers can do. It lets me see what a little dapper fellow he is in his blue stripes.
However much I want to get mired in the details of this, and however much my anal retentive nature is satisfied by this, what both styles of post-processing should accomplish is to disappear and to allow anyone viewing this image to get a better sense of the emotion of the moment, and to be drawn into who the person is in the photo.
That is where I get frustrated with photographers at times. Trends come and go, what is popular now will date an image in 10 years (remember the second inset head in many of our childhood portraits from the 80s?) I would rather have a portrait that is still technically good, after all- you can't compromise on focus, but a bit less trendy if it meant that it was a more real remembrance of a specific person and a specific place and time. Yes there needs to be allowances in the fact that portraiture is an impression of real life, but I think that the more that I go on, the more I go back to my photojournalist roots and desire to capture reality. HS Seniors- how often do you really find yourself kneeling on a railroad track in your everyday life anyways?
Labels:
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