I wouldn't generalize this for all of his photographs, but just looking through his book 'On This Earth', I can easily tell there's at least been a sort of scratchy texture applied to two or more of his images in the book (I don't have them off the top of my head, but I can point them out if anybody asks), and the texture is identical. This proves that Mr. Brandt is at least not below using Photoshop filters.
I've never seen a higher-resolution version of 'Lion in the Storm', but on a close examination of the copies I've seen floating around on the internet, it looks like there's some pretty generous application of gaussian blur and the smudge brush. I've done it myself enough times to kind of know what it looks like, at least. I can't think of any situation where that would be possible without post-processing.
Not to say that they're not stunning photos in every way; I love them to death, I just wouldn't doubt that they've been digitally manipulated at all. And not to say there's anything wrong with artful use of digital manipulation, either. It's just as valid a medium as anything else.
Nick Brandt: lens selection?
in Medium Format
Posted
I wouldn't generalize this for all of his photographs, but just looking through his book 'On This Earth', I can easily tell there's at least been a sort of scratchy texture applied to two or more of his images in the book (I don't have them off the top of my head, but I can point them out if anybody asks), and the texture is identical. This proves that Mr. Brandt is at least not below using Photoshop filters.
I've never seen a higher-resolution version of 'Lion in the Storm', but on a close examination of the copies I've seen floating around on the internet, it looks like there's some pretty generous application of gaussian blur and the smudge brush. I've done it myself enough times to kind of know what it looks like, at least. I can't think of any situation where that would be possible without post-processing.
Not to say that they're not stunning photos in every way; I love them to death, I just wouldn't doubt that they've been digitally manipulated at all. And not to say there's anything wrong with artful use of digital manipulation, either. It's just as valid a medium as anything else.