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Garden Photography winners - stunning pictures

Posted: February 9th, 2018, 11:37 am
by fuiseog
Some (almost all) of these pictures are nothing short of stunning IMHO.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-42960835

None are mine -:(

Re: Garden Photography winners - stunning pictures

Posted: March 31st, 2018, 5:25 pm
by MaraMan
For me some of them are good, but several are Photoshop-tastic shots that tend to win competitions in recent years. I don't consider those to be photography, just computerised graphic art. However, I am probably in a minority with this view, but I do sense the mood is changing.
MM

Re: Garden Photography winners - stunning pictures

Posted: April 1st, 2018, 7:00 pm
by CaledoniaMan
I don't consider those to be photography, just computerised graphic art.


This debate is much older than photoshop and "computerised graphic art". The alteration of photo's whether it be for artistic reasons has been around since the beginning of photography, In the late 19th early 20th century it was known as the pictorialist style expressing a more artistic emotional interpretation of what was in front of the camera. In reaction to this in the 1930's the f/64 club was set up by the likes of Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham who wanted the photograph to record the exact detail of the image in front of the camera. Alfred Stieglitz is often quoted as the classic pictorialist photographer but the truth is we all choose our point of view, best light, exposure, colour, monochorome to help enhance the photo we are taking, so we are all guilty of a bit of artistic manipulation.

It also touches on the debate ... "Is photography art?"

Re: Garden Photography winners - stunning pictures

Posted: April 2nd, 2018, 11:46 am
by MaraMan
I wasnt suggesting anything new I know and photographers and the mere act of photographing manipulates a view of reality, merely the mechanism by which it is done is very different. I prefer the original analogue skills, others prefer to use computers, thats fine and just as legitimate. They are however different skills to achieve expression, call it art or whatever you like. I think we see that computerised photography has a tendency to over-exaggerate colour and light for my taste, but not for the current competition fashion. I do sense this is changing and that film photography is again coming into fashion, which I applaud. There are many shots in the competition in question that I do not believe would be achievable with film, however many filters, special film (viz Velvia) or developing/printing tricks you might use. Film can though achieve its own set of effects, I just hope we never lose that and continue to see it as a valuable if different "art", with maybe its own competitions.

Re: Garden Photography winners - stunning pictures

Posted: April 2nd, 2018, 12:18 pm
by redsturgeon
MaraMan wrote:I wasnt suggesting anything new I know and photographers and the mere act of photographing manipulates a view of reality, merely the mechanism by which it is done is very different. I prefer the original analogue skills, others prefer to use computers, thats fine and just as legitimate. They are however different skills to achieve expression, call it art or whatever you like. I think we see that computerised photography has a tendency to over-exaggerate colour and light for my taste, but not for the current competition fashion. I do sense this is changing and that film photography is again coming into fashion, which I applaud. There are many shots in the competition in question that I do not believe would be achievable with film, however many filters, special film (viz Velvia) or developing/printing tricks you might use. Film can though achieve its own set of effects, I just hope we never lose that and continue to see it as a valuable if different "art", with maybe its own competitions.



I think that when many people complain about the overuse of Photoshop it is the over use of HDR and over saturation effects that people are referring too. I share the distaste for that and would say that although I am an avid user of Photoshop that I would always try to produce an effect that is natural rather than synthetic.

I guess the issue at the moment, as you state, is that the general taste seems to be for the over saturated look as demonstrated here by Peter Lik one of the main proponent of this who earns a small fortune with his work.

https://lik.com/

Not to my taste but a lot of people seem to like it.

John