Posts Tagged ‘photoshop’
“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs”*…
Berlin-based Erik Johansson doesn’t so much “take” photographs; he “makes” them…
See more of his wonderful work here.
* Ansel Adams
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As we recommit to learning Photoshop, we might send delightfully-drawn birthday greetings to Paul Gustave Doré; he was born on this date in 1832. An engraver, illustrator, and sculptor, Dore is probably best-remembered as the man who showed us Heaven and Hell: the canonical illustrator of works by Rabelais, Balzac, Milton, Cervantes, and Dante.
Don Quixote, his horse Rocinante, and his squire Sancho Panza after an unsuccessful attack on a windmill.
The Tempest of Hell in THE DIVINE COMEDY
All that glitters…
In the age of Photoshop and Auto-Tune, it’s no real surprise to find that icons don’t actually look nor sound as they do in the media for which they are adored (see, e.g., here and here). Still, as this Britney Spears feed reminds us, the reality can be jarring…
Your correspondent has done his best to confirm the legitimacy of the loop. While there’s (understandably) been no confirmation from Ms. Spears’ camp, it’s included here, as he can find no meaningful refutation… rather, mostly just comments expressing no surprise whatsoever that things are not as they are meant to seem. The “T-Pain effect,” as it’s come to be known, is now so widespread (again, see– and listen– here) that it seems to be taken for granted. Indeed, readers can download a T-Pain iPhone app that will do a similar job for them… all of which must be a frustrating state of affairs for performers like Billy Joe Armstrong and Norah Jones, who actually do their own singing, unaided and beautifully.
In any case, it’s a (painful) reminder that too often these days, what glitters isn’t even nearly gold… indeed, too often it’s tin.
As we reach for the earplugs, we might recall that it was on this date in 2002 (in anticipation of the first anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon) that the TSA “Threat Level” was raised to Orange. It bounced between Orange (high) and Yellow (elevated) from then until mid-August, 2006, when it returned to Orange– where it remains to this day.
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The eyes have it…
From 10,000 Words (“where journalism and technology meet”), a look at “10 News photos that took retouching too far“:
Many news photographs are Photoshopped here and there to increase clarity or to optimize for print or online display. But there have been several instances where retouching has been pushed too far, changing the original intent or accuracy of the photo.
Among the before-and-after examples:
From USA Today…
and this, from the Toledo Blade:
Read the back-stories, and check out the other eight, here.
In many newsrooms it is unethical to pass off a retouched photo as reality. Ideally, retouching of a news photograph should be limited to basic exposure and color correction, cropping, resizing, or conversion to grayscale. Any Photoshopping that alters the meaning of the original photo should be labeled as a “news illustration” in the caption so the viewer understands the photo has been altered.
Retouching may seem innocent, but can have a profound effect on the way we remember an event, according to a 2007 study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.
“Any media that employ digitally doctored photographs will have a stronger effect than merely influencing our opinion – by tampering with our malleable memory, they may ultimately change the way we recall history,” said researcher Dario Sacchi.
For more on the ethics of news photography, check out the National Press Photographers Association’s code of ethics.
As we reconsider the evidence of our own eyes, we might recall that on this date in 1775, via a resolution submitted to the Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee, the “United Colonies” of America (which had it’s own currency; c.f. the $2 note below) changed it’s name to the “United States” — a masterstroke of re-branding.
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