Today’s World

In today’s digitally based world, we basically live online. We create, share, and connect through apps that bring anything and everything you need to know into the palm of your hand. 

On Instagram, I can travel from a major city to the peaceful countryside in a matter of seconds, scrolling through image after image on my feed. Lately, I have been noticing that more often than not, I come across stunning captures of photographers that makes me question, 

“Is this even real?”

From city skylines with an incredible milky way sky, to a questionable group of birds, flying just a tad too close for comfort. 

Some of these people call themselves ‘artists’ and clarify that their content is digital art. Others refer to themselves as photographers, and their work as photographs. 

Now, I wonder, how much can you edit a photo and still call it a photograph? At what point does photography become digital art? 

Editing

First and foremost, I want to state that neither photography or digital art is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Both photography and digital art are amazing forms of creativity and can result in a beautiful piece of work. 

As a photographer, I think it is safe to say that virtually every photographer edits his photos before showing them to the world. I do so as well and think that post-processing is a good thing. Editing assists a photograph to reach its full potential. 

Some main areas of editing in post-processing include: 

• Adjusting light 
• Changing color
• Minor enhancing such as removing spots

There is the danger of overdoing an edit. Especially at the start of my photography journey, I often edited my photos a bit too much. This playfulness is part of the process of finding your style as a photographer. 

But over-editing photos is not what this blog is about. 

This blog is about using photoshop to create a complete new situation or scenery.

I do not think editing, or even over editing, is an issue. I edit my photos, as do many other photographers. Usually, an average eye can easily spot an over-edited photo. 

 The difference is using photoshop to create a completely new situation or scenery. 

Using Photoshop as a Photographer

Photoshop is quite useful for photographers. It offers a variety of tools to make photos better. 

For instance, sometimes I go out to take photos and realize afterwards that my lens was dirty. The result is photos with dust spots everywhere. Photoshop offers various ways for me to get rid of the dust spots and save these photos. Without photoshop, the photos would have ended up straight in the trash bin. 

Another thing you can do with photoshop is to change the whole scenery. Photoshop allows you to add elements, change the sky, or completely remove people from the photo. Anything is possible.

The raw unedited photo

What i could have done to the photo

How I edited the photo

SO WHEN IS IT NOT A PHOTOGRAPH ANYMORE?

My favorite part about photography is the ability to capture moments that may never appear again. When you go further than simply editing a photo, this captured moment disappears and turns into a created moment. 

You are not capturing a moment anymore, but creating one. 

Of course, not all types of photos are captured moments. Disciplines such as portraits, real estate, and product photography are often moments that are pre-planned and created to make the photo as impressive as possible.

But when it comes to disciplines such as travel, street, and landscape photography, creating a moment almost feels like cheating. 

Every photographer will take some photos and feel like there is something missing. There is just not enough going on to grab the viewer’s attention.

One way to fix this is to add a few birds to the sky, or change the entire sky. It adds the missing visual interest to the photo.  But if you do so, is it still considered a photograph or should it be considered digital art?

Another way to create the perfect photo is by retaking it, instead of changing it. 

Quite a lot of photographers go back to the same location of the photo another day or time and wait. Wait for something interesting to happen, or go during a peak time of day, such as a sunset. 

THE STORY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE PICTURE

Peter Mckinnon, one of the biggest photographers active on YouTube, created a short movie about this concept called ‘The Bucket Shot.’

He once took photos of Lake Moraine in Canada but knew that he could get a better one in the winter, with different weather conditions. 

8 years after getting this idea, the timing was finally right and the weather conditions were perfect. So he flew across the country to take this one, specific photo. All of this effort for his dream shot.

It takes time, effort, and planning to create these perfect shots. Some nature photographers follow an animal for weeks. Some days, they don’t see any action, but they are patient and wait for that perfect moment.

Now, Peter Mckinnon or these nature photographers could just photoshop in their ideal shots and make their dream photos. But these images would be missing any sort of emotion or story. They don’t feel real.

THE OTHER SIDE

Recently, I was reading a discussion about this topic in the comments of someone’s Instagram post. The post was a photo of a beach village in Greece with an incredible milky way sky. 

I have to admit, the view was stunning. But the post also included a video about how he edited this view. It revealed that the view was created by combining two photos, one of the village and one of the sky.

Someone’s comment stated that ‘you can’t call yourself a photographer if you photoshop in a whole new sky.’

The person that posted this image was clearly offended and stated that he took both of the photos (the village and the milky way) and then combined them. 

I understand why this person was offended. I don’t think it is fair to say that he is not a photographer. I do think it is fair to say that this specific post is not a photograph, but digital art. 

Some will disagree, but for me this photo is missing a story. There is not much to tell about this stunning view, because it was created, not captured.

In 2018 already, Insider.com noticed the upcoming trend of adding a flock of birds to your travel photos. They interviewed various travel bloggers about this trend and received mixed opinions. Some stated that they see it as inauthentic and deceptive, but others called it a valid form of artistic and creative expression.

In the case of travel photographers, they do this to create a ‘natural’ and ‘dreamy’ wanderlust feeling. They are not trying to tell a story, but to create a dream feeling. 

PHOTOGRAPH OR DIGITAL ART?

For me, a photograph is a moment captured that may never appear again. Sometimes to get the perfect shot it takes time, effort and planning. But all the work that goes into creating that perfect photo is what makes the story.

When you change the whole scenery or change the whole content, this photo turns into digital art. It can still be beautiful, but it is missing time, effort and planning that goes into perfect photographs. The authenticity is gone.

The problem is not what kind of art you create, but how you identify your work.

When I found out that a photographer whose work I looked up to photoshops 50% of his images, I was disappointed. It is discouraging that I will not be able to take the majority of the photos I dreamed of capturing one day because they were not real to begin with.

In my opinion photographers / artists should be honest about photoshopping. Even as a photographer you can still make and share photoshopped work, just be transparent about it and call it what it is, digital art.