Is it image manipulation or enhancement?

I have read a lot of discussions on the net for and against image manipulation. This month I heard it too!

What is it with photographers that it is so concerning about the image being manipulated? It seems like badge of honor to claim their image is not modified! A sense of being unique!

I am not sure if an image manipulated or not bothers me. I either like the image or not.

In a way it is like selling organic food and labeling it as organic, else no one would pay more for it! So to show the worth of you image you have to label it as not manipulated.

This is what I had to say to a friend who would not listen to popular music because everyone else was listening to it, hence it was boring, “In search of being unique, we end up being similar”.

It is how Harley Davidson sells a lot of bike. They sell an image of the bike rather than the bike. They sell this “image” to people who go in search of being different and unique not realizing that there are a lot looking for the same “image”.

It seems like photographer are struggling with the same idea of being unique. There is probably a distinction between manipulated and enhanced.

If I had to claim a “unique” style as a photographer, it would be that I don’t use Photoshop much because my Photoshop skills suck! Now that is unique or is it?

Canberra Photographic Society (May)

This month at the Canberra Photographic Society we had a competition night on the first week and a presentation by Scott Leggo on the second week.

Both sessions where very interesting night and credit to those who put in their time to organize these sessions.

The competition night had some amazing images. Ones I found the most interesting where:

• Series of images from India. (A group of members had travelled to Rajasthan, India)
• Series of images from Singapore during Thaipusam
• Series of portraits in large prints tightly cropped
• Series of portraits from the day Kevin Rudd said sorry to the aboriginals on behalf of the country
• Series of images of gravestones.

The judge finished his critique quite early and for the first time contestants where allowed to talk about their images. Probably not the best idea, as it gives the contestants a chance to disagree with the judge in their presence. It kind of becomes like the crowd judging the judge! There was a bit of discussion on the use of Photoshop to enhance images.

The competition was deservedly won by Russell who took the sorry day portraits.

The second week was a presentation by self taught landscape photographer Scott Leggo, showing us some of his work and his approach to landscape photography. A lot of his images where form North East Victoria. He almost went through his full workflow of how he prepares for an image to the final print. End of session was open to questions. I could sense it and turned out to be true, we ended up spending some time discussing Photoshop again

Scott’s message was that people buy images because they emotionally connect to the image. They want to feel the image. Another interesting idea I interpreted was that, the more people take their digital cameras around and click picture, the more they understand how valuable a professional’s work is.

Common theme to both weeks: Boring discussion about Photoshop and how images with emotion attached, win!

Started Chinese lessons

Had my first lesson of Chinese last night for 2 hours! Seven more sessions to go. Our cute teacher Tilly Tan started of teaching us Chinese characters and for a second I thought I was in the wrong class. We soon let her know that we where only interested in speaking and could not be bothered learning Chinese characters.

It was interesting that four out of five students where learning Chinese because their partners are Chinese. Made me wonder if Chinese ever learn other languages! Anyway my reason is no different.

We learned five sentences and numbers from 1 to 10.

The skill level in the class was varied. Some already knew basic pronunciation. I found it really hard to just listen and pronounce rather that look at the persons face and see how they are pronouncing it. I think I will ask Megan help me with that.

Now I’ve got to find someone to speak Chinese with and practice.

Once I am done learning Chinese, I will know four languages: English, Hindi, Tamil and Chinese!