The hosts of the Fine Art of Photography group ( Paul Louis Villani Mark German David Librach Gracey Patrick Morand and Mike Finley) are currently working on the guidelines for the Fine Art of Photography group.
One of the issues we are trying to address is the dividing line between digital photography and digital art. There are many cases where it is clear which side of the line images sit, but not all are so clear.
Clearly digital photography
- a single image that has only been cropped, and adjusted for correct colour and tone.
Clearly digital art
- fractal images
- vector images
- images that are entirely created by packages such as Bryce
- photographic images that have any of the above added to them.
Grey areas
Where there has been extensive postprocessing that changes the nature of the photograph it is harder to decide what has crossed the border to digital art, and sometimes we as hosts will have to make a decision on accepting or rejecting an image for the group.
Some adjustments will probably be accepted:
- conversion to monochrome, or selective colouring
- addition (or removal) of single photographic elements to improve the original image without changing the nature of the image (eg adding a more interesting sky (though if done well, this should be very hard to spot), or removing or softening an obtrusive background or unwanted feature)
Some will probably be rejected:
- using filters or other software to substantially change the appearance of an image – eg filters to give the apperance of a watercolour or oil painiting.
- combining several images to create a new image substantially different from any of the original images, or to create a clearly ‘fantasy’ image.
This has also been posted in the “Fine Art of Photography”: discussion forum, here to facilitate discussion with group members.
