Doughnut Girl
by
gyabanComment by gyaban: Originally posted by gcoulson:
I wonder whether an image like this pushes you more out of your comfort zone than an image under expert editing where you can create whatever you'd like under the time restraint? To me, this image speaks greater to me about your phenomenal talent as a photographer than some of your very ambitious and complex expert editing submissions. This just has so much more meaning and impact, visually, in my honest opinion. |
Thanks a lot for your kind words. I value your opinion a lot, and in a sense I agree with you, even if my view on the subject is quite different.
I perceive minimal or basic editing as the "easy way". I mean, anyone can take a technically decent photo with nowadays' gear. Even my mother does (sometimes ;)) Any camera embeds chips that will compute for you some decent settings. If the result doesn't look good, well, you still captured the "reality as it is", and consequently, you can blame it on the environment (too much clouds, not enough sun, too much sun, subject wouldn't stand still, nothing happened that day, that lens sucks, etc.) I do know this is not entirely the truth, and great photographers will still usually find a way to snap good shots in, no matter what. But if you fail, you still has that little voice in the head telling you it's not entirely your fault.
As a contrary, under expert editing rules, you are in control of everything, literally. If the result is poor, then you are the sole responsible for it. In that sense, "expert editing" pushes me way more out of my comfort zone. While anyone can take a decent photo (not necessarily fabulous, just decent), a decent photoshop collage is another story: it takes much more time for everything: figuring out a working composition, shooting the elements, masking, adjusting all the colours and lights... We all saw some pictures that are a complete failure in that regard. It's much easier to produce a bad photoshop work than a bad photo. I believe you really need some solid photo skills to try and achieve nice photoshop work (unless you are a pure digital painter and draws everything from scratch, but that's yet another thing).
To conclude, yes you are right, some of my massively photoshoped entries have less impact that this photo. For me, it just means I should work harder on them: it's still a way to produce images that non-edited photos cannot. Since I do love unrealistic and imaginative pictures, I find these modern techniques very interesting, and logically, intend to get better at them.
Message edited by author 2011-09-28 13:18:25. 
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