How important is editing to a shot?

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<p>Sarah, thanks for the response. I agree with you about technology. And I do know that you're photographic concerns are more widespread than just technology. <em>All I was emphasizing was that sometimes the images we get in our cameras are merely raw materials to convey ideas or metaphors and there is little or no concern with how they relate to what we saw in the moment.</em> Sometimes the concern is really just with how the camera sees and not how it sees relative to the eye that saw the real world at another moment.</p>

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<p>Oh, I do agree. Absolutely! All this stuff about purity and authenticity and whether to "manipulate" or not is truly agonizing. It sucks creativity from the air and bleaches photography of all of its joy. I'm truly tempted to turn my efforts towards painting -- or perhaps sculpting, where I believe there is much more tolerance for individuality.</p>

Fascinating discussion to lurk around. What the diversity of opinion tells me is that i can do whatever i want and not

worry about what someone else might think, but then thats what i thought before i guess. I am fascinated by attempts to

contstrain the definition of photography and tend to agree with Sarah hat it is more than exhausting than necessary. But

it has been an enjoyable discussion to follow.

<p>The discussion has led me to think in broader terms about decision-making.</p>

<p>Can I make a choice without an assumption that there would be something wrong with other choices I could have made? Can I just do something because I want to, recognizing that doing something else could be every bit as good and valid and OK, for me, but I just don't happen to want to do it? How motivated, even on a subtle level, are we by sin, guilt, moralizing, and judgment?<br /> <br /> Telling words have been used for the choices we DON'T make, words like <em>cheating</em>, <em>trickery</em>, <em>inauthentic</em>, <em>impure</em>. Let's say they are, indeed, words with "personal" meaning to the person saying them and meant to refer only to the photographer using them. Let's stipulate that it isn't meant to put down another's way of doing something. Why the self judgment? Why "cheater" if you were to make a different choice? There, now, feel better about yourself?<br /> <br /> Why isn't it enough to say, <em>"I don't want to post process my photos"</em>? Does one, then, really have to rationalize and characterize, even if just for themselves, as trickery or cheating the choice they didn't make? <br /> <br /> How important is it to make the "right" choice instead of just the desired choice?</p>

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<p>Can I make a choice without an assumption that there would be something wrong with other choices I could have made?</p>

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<p>Fred - one could certainly introduce a significant amount of angst into their own own photography decisions, or alternatively avoid that by deciding that every personal decision is "right" and anyone not following the same process is somehow "not right". Somehow both of those approaches seem an overstatement to me.</p>

<p>On this site, and in discussions with others photographers the issue of what-is-a-photograph drives a lot of the conversation, and as long as we can stay civil and agree that there is no scientific, binary, black-and-white definition then the grey areas are fascinating to me personally.</p>

<p>Thats kind of you, Dan. Personally I think it's OK, but nothing special except in the sense that it's a bird I rarely get to photograph in reasonable light.</p>

<p>It's processed <em>a lot</em>, too - cropped, sharpened, levels-adjusted, processed to emphasise the backlight through the tips of the wing feathers - and yet still how I remember the scene..!</p>

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<p>Why isn't it enough to say, <em>"I don't want to post process my photos"</em>? Does one, then, really have to rationalize and characterize, even if just for themselves, as trickery or cheating the choice they didn't make?</p>

 

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<p>It should be enough, Fred - but perhaps in the minds of some, to make such an allowance would be to admit that their prejudices do not, in fact, have any basis - and people don't like their bubbles burst.</p>

<p>How about the plural of choice? <strong> Follow the right arrows</strong> for, say, seven or eight shots, please:</p>

<p><a href="/photo/17499418"><strong>[LINK]</strong></a><br /> <br /> <strong>CAUTION: </strong>The right arrows do go on for a while.<br>

<strong> </strong><br>

<strong>--Lannie<br /></strong></p>

<p><strong>Lannie,</strong> the black and whites of the road and car work. The color ones, with the neon green grasses and trees, don't work as well for me, but that's got to do with how the color looks, not with cheating.</p>