Which one is best????
I have a natural tendency towards the more technological approach so am comfortable with blending in Photoshop. Others prefer to achieve there end product "in camera". I will pursue both approaches to start with and see which method delivers the best results.
I have been reading the blog of Charlotte Bellamy who is a Master Craftsman in the Guild of Photographers and specialises in ICM and Merged images. She often uses images taken on her mobile phone and uses Photoshop to blend them together. Her images are very inspiring and her blog includes many tips about her techniques.
I have done a number of experiments blending woodland scenes together in Photoshop and have produced some very weird effects. I am pleased with these but am not sure how they will be received by others. (Perhaps that does not matter!!!)
I have attached a few here.
I have also continued to do conventional ICM work and am pleased with images produced by rotating the camera whilst keeping it pointed at the subject. This works well with trees.
Re Part 11
ReplyDeleteI prefer the rotation.
I enjoy blending both in Lightroom and Photoshop. In my opinion Photoshop offers more power and accuracy, and this is where creative artistic licence comes into it's own.
When I work in Photoshop I believe it is then when I become an artist more than a photographer.
Many people see the use of Photoshop as cheating but are happy for artists to move or exclude elements from the scene in front of them in order to improve their composition. I believe both are valid parts of the creative process.
DeleteI agree.
ReplyDeletePhotoshop is not for the purists in photography, I get that. My view is that the purist will photograph a scene will produce some but little originality, compared to those of us that use the likes of lightroom or Photoshop to create a piece of definitive art. What I am trying to say is that the camera does not capture exactly what the eye sees. Processing as you know is a way of reproducing what we see as apposed to what the camera has captured.
ReplyDeleteI am not aiming to be bitchy towards purists, far from it I have much respect for them. I am merely trying in my own way to justify processing not manipulation.
I agree with what you say but would take it further. Using photoshop only to try and adjust the image to give a more accurate representation of what you, the viewer, saw is missing an opportunity.Post processing tools give you the artistic freedom to manipulate and change the scene to reflect your feelings in the same way a painter can choose to move elements in his scene to improve the composition or remove distractions.Furthermore the image maker has the opportunity to change the original image radically to match the scene they had envisioned before capturing the shot in camera.This whole subject is explored in detail by Julia Anna Gospodaru whose web site https://www.juliaannagospodarou.com/Pages/EnVisionography is well worth a look.
DeleteChris I have been reading from the link of Julia Anna Gospodarou that you placed in this post. Thank you.
DeleteI acknowledge that she is introducing and describing her vision and her method of producing a final piece of artistic photography, with the aid of various tools in software. She writes with amazing detail which is far beyond my level of academia, I found it to be very deep and I had to read certain passages more than once in order to get my head around it.
After reading, the depth of her philosophy is obvious in her photography. She obviously has the vision of the final outcome in her mind prior to taking the shot.
I like her work, not sure how original it is though. For me this level of BnW is visually dramatic and powerful. Black and grey tones dominates her pictures, almost a spotlight the white being the lesser and used in a way that draws my eye, and is determined to present without question the subject as the main event. Her work is powerful and I would place it in the category of ‘Fine Art Photography’
As I say I do like her work, I am interested enough to try and emulate it, I am not holding my breath but it will be interesting and a new experience.
I like Julia's philosophy more than her finished images. Being able to envision an image before you start is very different approach. To imagine a final image and then use the camera to create a base image or images intrigues me. Using software to mould and alter these base images then becomes a creative process.I aspire to be good at this and will certainly give a lot of thought to it.
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