Who thinks PP has gone to far?

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning to get some costal sunrise shots. Im sitting here doing some post processing and feeling a little dismayed that I can turn the most rubbish looking pics into amazing looking shots regardless of the true 'reality' of what was really there.

Its all too easy IMHO to make a photo from the comfort of your armchair that in no way resembles what the actual conditions were. Heck I can make the most mundane run of the mill sunrise look like the most amazing sunrise just with the click of a button and it kind of has me depressed...for example my wife will look at the pics and go 'wow it must have been an amazing morning, look at the colours, how lucky were you' when really i know its rubbish...a fraud...really a waste of time

After all if it isn't 'real' then I may as well have not been there-I may have just as well copied an pasted someone else's work...

I somewhat disagree. There was all kinds of magic going on in the darkroom before the digital era. Post processing has always been a part of photography. In the film era we used chemicals and today we use software.

I agree that today's tools allow you to do some amazing things but you're in no way obligated to take things that far in PP. You can continue to master your exposure, wait for the perfect conditions to take the shot and keep your PP to a minimum. Those generally end up being the best captures IMO. It's all a matter of choice.

Stone 13 wrote in post #15446943
I somewhat disagree. There was all kinds of magic going on in the darkroom before the digital era. Post processing has always been a part of photography. In the film era we used chemicals and today we use software.

I agree that today's tools allow you to do some amazing things but you're in no way obligated to take things that far in PP. You can continue to master your exposure, wait for the perfect conditions to take the shot and keep your PP to a minimum. Those generally end up being the best captures IMO. It's all a matter of choice.

I have zero experience with film but couldn't imagine you would be able to do anywhere near the amount of manipulation we can these days. Sunrise-looking a bit flat, simple change the temperature add a bit of color, heck even add in a couple of faint stars and bam-an amazing looking sunrise...

I dunno...I just feel like Im cheating, that its not real...I agree with you-I should try to limit PP

I would like to see an example of a crap shot that you have taken and turned it in to a good shot.

theflyingkiwi wrote in post #15446992
I would like to see an example of a crap shot that you have taken and turned it in to a good shot.

lol I was waiting for someone to ask for that....I will have to work out how to upload the two different versions, got a quick link for LR4?

blogs wrote in post #15446912
'reality'

Why does your photo have to represent "reality"?

blogs wrote in post #15446976
I have zero experience with film but couldn't imagine you would be able to do anywhere near the amount of manipulation we can these days. Sunrise-looking a bit flat, simple change the temperature add a bit of color, heck even add in a couple of faint stars and bam-an amazing looking sunrise...

The ease with which we can all manipulate images during post processing is the only difference. Everything we do now was possible in the film era but it took a real craftsman to do it, unlike now when we are all able to play. After all, the tricks were all invented by these darkroom wizards.

I have it from a highly reliable source that Picasso died in horrible mental anguish and fear of the divine judgement he was about to face. "Women with two faces and three eyes between them! Blue horses! And it was so easy. I am a cheating sinner."

Lowner wrote in post #15447052
The ease with which we can all manipulate images during post processing is the only difference. Everything we do now was possible in the film era but it took a real craftsman to do it, unlike now when we are all able to play. After all, the tricks were all invented by these darkroom wizards.

Hey, it was impossible to manipulate a daguerreotype. They were the last real photographers 140 years ago.

imjason wrote in post #15447033
Why does your photo have to represent "reality"?

To me pesonaly a lot! Otherwise why even go to the trouble of waking up at 4am to take sunrise photos-just stay in bed and copy and past a fantasy land...

tzalman wrote in post #15447059
I have it from a highly reliable source that Picasso died in horrible mental anguish and fear of the divine judgement he was about to face. "Women with two faces and three eyes between them! Blue horses! And it was so easy. I am a cheating sinner."

Lol, to me a landscape artist is someone who does the hard yards and puts in the effort to capture those truely remarkable and rare breath taking moments where nature astounds in all it's glory.

Sure 'art' can be considered but if you are taking that angle the. Why not just copy and past a photoshop job-there are millions of pieces available to be raped and pillaged to be passed of as art?

blogs wrote in post #15447126
Lol, to me a landscape artist is someone who does the hard yards and puts in the effort to capture those truely remarkable and rare breath taking moments where nature astounds in all it's glory.

Sure 'art' can be considered but if you are taking that angle the. Why not just copy and past a photoshop job-there are millions of pieces available to be raped and pillaged to be passed of as art?

Is Velvia - that most time-honoured of tools for the landscape photographer - giving an accurate rendition of reality?

Photographers need to accept a version of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle; that it is impossible to accurately portray reality in a photograph because the taking of the photograph alters reality. Velvia boosts saturation and contrast. Your TS lenses (or Ansel's view cameras) create focal planes that cannot exist to the human eye. Your ND grad filters alter shadows and highlights in a wholly unnatural way.

Photography is not about an accurate portrayal of reality. It can't be.

Yes, computers are cheating, and make it very easy for anyone.

Show your proof...