John wrote: > If you draw the line at "nothing added, nothing removed" no one can > argue about how much has been changed in the story the image tells.
> There's really nowhere else you can draw that line without it being > challenged. I totally understand what you and others are saying, and I do get the point 100%. The problem I see is that there's a basic assumption that the photons entering the lens and recorded on the media somehow represent THE TRUTH. I believe that assumption is flawed. First, those photons pass through the lens and are bent in order to be recorded on the media or detected by the sensor. As Bill noted, that can drastically change the look of an image. So what focal length represents truth (not to mention DOF)? Exposure? Then those recordings pass through digital circuitry and are changed. Then they are manipulated internally by software to render a 2-dimensional *version* of what was there in 3 dimensions. Enough said. The other issue is that were I to pan the camera in any direction by any amount, I'd end up with a different image. The mere act of pressing the shutter release includes photons entering the lens and making it through the aperture and discards those not lucky enough to do so. So right there we could consider that elements of truth were included while others were discarded, all because of where the photographer was pointing the camera, be it somewhat arbitrarily or deliberately. Did the captured image represent what was really there or did the photographer deliberately include some elements while deliberately excluding others? Is that what it looked like to the naked human eye or was perspective and focus point changed? Was the intent nefarious in making those choices or benevolent? I contend photography of any kind is ALL ABOUT deciding what IS captured and what is NOT. That is the essence of photography and composition. To state that any captured image unequivocally represents THE TRUTH is simply incorrect. To say that changing image content at capture time or afterwards changes the TRUTHFULNESS of the image is false. Tom C. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
