Kristina, “Fire and Ice”
Although you wouldn’t guess it from the image above, 99% of the time I am pretty much a photographic purist. What you see in my images is what you would see if you were standing right next to me when I clicked the shutter.
When I started posting landscape photos on Facebook about 15 years ago, one person in particular would regularly ask me, “Is this real or is this Photoshop?” And my answer would be, “This is real”, or “This is the same thing you would see if you were standing next to me when I clicked the shutter.”
The problem was she was used to seeing boring images of average subjects in average, ordinary light. So stunning natural light looked fake to her.
When I first developed a serious interest in photography, one of my first mentors, via his books and magazine articles, was Galen Rowell. He was a photographic purist. The photos he published were as true as slide film could get to what his eyes were seeing when he clicked the shutter. The dramatic light in his images wasn’t Photoshop, it was because he worked long and hard to be in situations where dramatic light might occur. He chose his slide films, and used neutral density filters to come as close as he could get co capturing on film what his eyes were seeing. Galen’s book Mountain Light was one of the three most important books in shaping me as a photographer. I don’t cry when famous people die, but I shed tears when I heard Galen and his wife had died in a tragic plane crash. That was the kind of impact he had on me as a photographer.
Galen Rowell, Gates of the Valley, Yosemite
One of Galen’s classic images.
El Capitan Reflection, Gates of the Valley, Yosemite National Park.
I was at the same spot as Galen, give or take 10-15 feet. The light was good. When Galen was there, the light was glorious.
Galen Rowell finally consented to allowing some of his images to be Photoshopped when a trusted friend pointed out that images out of the camera can fall short of what your eyes were seeing when you clicked the shutter. So Galen allowed some of his images to be Photoshopped to bring them closer to what his eyes were seeing.
That is especially true today of digital images. Digital images do not have the light to dark dynamic range that your eyes have, and no digital camera can capture the range of color tones that you eyes can see. Some digital images fall far short of what your eyes see due to dramatic light and a dynamic range that the camera simply cannot capture. Photoshop can bring back some of what the camera can’t fully capture. In a sense, “If it isn’t Photoshop, it isn’t real.” In other words, Photoshop is necessary when the image falls short of “visual reality”, what your eyes were actually seeing.
Dawn at Sprague Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado.
Bob (my brother-in-law and photo buddy of many years), and I got up super early to be at Spague Lake. This is the glorious light that developed. What you see in this image is what we saw when we were standing there.
Having said all of that, every once in a while I want to create something really different from what my eyes were seeing. I go Photoshop crazy. That’s ok too. The image at the top of the page is an example.
This is the color image out of the camera.
Kristina
This version is converted to black and white. I like this a lot. This is still considered photographic purism but in black and white. Then I tried various colorized versions, some better than others.
Kristina, “Fire and Ice”
And then I ended up with this colorized version. I love this! And it is a far cry from the original. When I dramatically change an image from visual reality, I point that out. Of course in this case it is obvious I changed the image.
It does not matter to me if a person is a photographic purist or not. I do care about photographic honesty. Years ago a photographer posted an image of a polar bear and a penguin in an icy landscape, something that never happens in the real world. He clearly labelled the image as a composite. It is a fun image due to its ridiculous nature and the way he put it together.
But there are sites on Facebook that post fake, AI images of things that are impossible in the real world and they try to pass them off as real. That I do not like. Posting fake images and saying they are real is not ok.
An example of fun AI art floating around the internet. How can you not love this?!
Link
Channeling My Inner Galen Rowell