There is no such thing as a photograph that is real. Every image is just that… an image, not the reality. It is a representation, a likeness, a reflection on reality. Why do I harp on something that is so obvious? Because, apparently, it isn’t so obvious.
Time and again we hear photographers say how they did not “manipulate” their photograph, as if somehow that makes it more real. Aside from the obvious — light emitting from a computer or reflecting off a print is not the real tree or person or building you took a photograph of — the choices you make before you press the shutter have already altered reality. It doesn’t matter if you choose a lens that has the precise field of view your eyes have or shoot only RAW images, it isn’t a faithful record of what’s in front of you. The image you see on your camera screen is a JPEG interpretation of the ones and zeros that make up the RAW file so you can have an idea of what your final result may be. If you shoot JPEG instead of RAW, the camera processes the image depending on the software in the camera, giving you even less control than with a RAW file. And what of your camera choice in the first place? If you choose a camera that has an ISO range of 200 to 12500, that has already limited your choices. And which ISO setting most faithfully records the scene? What lens doesn’t alter the view by its very design, its glass coatings, its number of elements? What about white balance settings or choice of f/stop and shutter speed? All of these choices have changed reality in some way — there is no “true” rendition of reality to find. Don’t think that it was somehow “better” before digital photography either. Our choice of film brand and film speed, the chemistry we chose to process the film, the paper we chose to print on, all of these choices had effects on the final interpretation of the image. The only difference is digital imaging gives us more ways to interpret and remove ourselves so much more from what we perceive as reality. Ultimately, we make these choices because of the way we see the world. The issue is not that we alter and manipulate our images. Every choice we make does that. The question is how much manipulation we find acceptable to create the final image. The digital file is only a starting point, one that is interpreted by the photographer and colored by their view of the world. Those choices create the final image, long before a scene is even considered photographic.
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