I have a little problem.
i don’t know when to call a photo a creation of myself. I mean, you can make a beautifull photo of a building. nice light and a good angle, or a beautifull landscape, but all I do is take a picture of it. I ‘m not the architect who created it, or i’m not God or nature, (whatever you believe) who made the landscape. So to create a photo it has to be something that i did. This means nearly allways editing wth photoshop. Or make a scene myself. Maybe there are people out there who have thoughts about this. I really like to hear from you.
thanks Peter.
trhis could be a nice discussion
Tammy Soulliere, 9 months ago
My Perspective
you took the image, you edited it.. its your perspective, that you’re creating for the world to see… the image is your creation not the subject..
Its like clay doh .. its always clay doh but what you create out of it is yours, mine well who evers got the clays creation lol
Its all a matter of perspective :)
peter hoenderdos, 9 months ago
Yeah I know, but it feels a bit like stealing to me. The easy way out. The architect creates it, the builder builds it. Hop, i come along push a button a go away with the credits.
George Lenz, 9 months ago
The saying on my business card says – “A painter constructs, a photographer discloses”. This what we do, disclose God’s creations to others. He (God) was the painter (builder). When we take a photo of a great landscape in France, for example or red rocks in Sedona, everybody gets to see it without going there. That is one thing I enjoy about RB, seeing place I may never get to go to. Images of God’s creatures from around the globe are also things I may never get to see close up. So, you’re not stealing, your disclosing. Cheers. G.
peter hoenderdos, 9 months ago
That’s a nice thought G.
Christina Norwood, 9 months ago
Why have I been studying photography all these years if all there is to it is clicking the button? It’s a bit like saying a racing car driver doesn’t win a race, it’s the car builder who does. All the driver does is drive it.
peter hoenderdos, 9 months ago
Yeah but the purpose of building a racecar is to drive it. Not to make a picture of it.. I don’t say that photography is only clicking the button, I only wonder where your own creation starts and till what point are you only a passanger on somebody’s else work.
Ian Porter, 9 months ago
and then there is the situation where you start with someone else’s image and change it sufficiently that it becomes a new work of art…
elisab, 9 months ago
It is the similar to decorating a house. You go to shops and buy your things, take it home and arrange everything. Some are good at it and some are not. I have seen some homes with nice expenxive stuff looking crappy, and homes with flea market left overs that look great. It is all in the arranging, cleanliness, and taste. Editing is great in my eyes.
Stacey Hatton, 9 months ago
I think that photography is quite a skill. It doesn’t matter how naturally great your subject matter is, if you don’t know how to frame it properly or know how to take a clear, strong coloured shot, then you’re not creating art. But, if you DO know these things, then you ARE creating art. And I’m all for editing, that’s a natural part of the process for most photographers. You still put a lot of time and love into your work don’t you? You have a right to be proud of it.
peter hoenderdos, 9 months ago
Oh I am proud of it, well in some cases at least. But your right. ~To me editing is a must. For me to create something with a picture is to make something of it that wasn’t there at the moment I pressed the button. Thats the difference to me I guess. If I press the button and that’s it ,how well taken the shot is , how beautiful its framed and everthing, it allways will remain just that, a photo, which I agree take some skill to do. But with editing you can create. I don’t regard one of these less comparing to the other, But my preverence would be to create. Now with most of my work you wouldn’t even notice, but I know and thats important to me. I also have photo’s wich I didn’t edit at all, and I have to say that I perfectly happy with them. But I still think of them as photo’s
Melanie Dooley, 9 months ago
We all see the world differently.
Ten people with cameras can take 10 different pictures of the same thing.
Just like the work I produce – the collage stuff. Everyone knows I did not paint the Mona Lisa but I use a scan of her in my own composition. The composition is my own work – it’s not something I would feel guilty about.
So create freely, experiment and find the style you are looking for.
Alison Johnston, 9 months ago
Hi Peter,
Sorry to drag up an old post.
I always think of photography as ‘capturing a moment in time that will never occur again’.
Ginny Schmidt, 9 months ago
I know how you feel. When I take a picture of something in nature or a man-made scene, it’s my picture, but I did not create content. However, I DID capture a unique angle or a subtlety of light, and I was the only one there at that particular time to catch it. If it is lovely, it is right to share it. If you can improve it somehow, accentuate an interesting aspect of your picture, even better. You never know when you will touch someone’s heart.
peter hoenderdos, 9 months ago
Yeah. But I still think that us photographers often take the easy way out taking the honour of somebody else. Beside that we must be very much warlike people. I mean we call our pictures “capture”. That what they did (and still do) with wild animals, or with enemies during war or worse with slaves. And the other word is “shot”. Do I need to say more. Maybe I better take knitting up for a hobby