Hey gang . . . first timer. If the site is good enough for Morris and Graf, I must be in the right place.

Ahhhh, the the computer manipulation debate. This one will be with us for a while. While holding my nose I start to participate in the digital world of photography. … and I mean holding it tight! I suspect we nature photographers have such a hard time with this because our own personal history and heritage of nature photographers gone by. Ingrained in us is the respectful observance and sharing of what God has created naturally. This is quite different from our cousins of the portrait world who have now graduated to the studio groomed world of “Glamour Shots”. Surely those Sports Illustrated bikini touting models pout that lip an stare in your eyes…in the natural “real” world. The point is nature photographers are a breed that has a deep appreciation for that which exists in the nature/natural state. I expect that we will continue to have progressively more problems with this slippery slope area of digital manipulation. By definition of the word NATUR-AL, we SHOULD have a problem. If our goal is commercial, we will have to bend to compete. But to the non-commercial purist who I believe there are many, you don’t have to bend. Take heart and be proud of the moment you captured….no matter the imperfection. Indeed, God did not create us perfect. At least not me … in case you were wondering.

So to the point…my opinion…digital manipulation is here to stay. Holding my nose I will explore it. But my answer to the debate is in agreement with JEFF LOFFERT, NOVEMBER 14, 1999. If you manipulate, just say so. Tell your audience what you have done. Jeff is right: If you are ashamed to state what you have done, then what you have done is wrong. Yes it does seem that the excuses and compromises are being made by those who alter without being forthright about it. If your manipulation is art, stand up and sign your masterpiece.

Whew!!!! Mark LaGrange, March 20, 2000

via Image manipulation, ethics and all. – Photo.net Nature Forum.

In reading the mass of words generated by a question on ethics, it seems obvious that the photographer must be honest about the origins of a specific picture or group of pictures. This will allow the purists to concentrate on “unaltered” images and the changelings to seek out more “perfect” images. A famous nature photographer spends years living among wild animals until they become tame around him/her. A production company photographs wild animals almonst entirely in simulated or replicated habitat studio settings. Someone else takes a single image and makes 101 dogs out of it. Then there are the electronically generated dinosaurs and giant apes that never existed at all.

Artisticly, it doesn’t matter how the image is created. Sociologically, it matters whether we are able to know what is real and what is imagined. Ethically, it matters if someone deliberately tries to mislead or lies about the origins of a picture.

via Image manipulation, ethics and all. – Photo.net Nature Forum.

via Image manipulation, ethics and all. – Photo.net Nature Forum.