Darren, I liked reading your rant, sentiments, whatever you might call it.
They are almost exactly like my feelings... And I manage to ignore my inconsistency while doing digital B&W images. My planned resolution is to start doing something entirely (eh, almost!) the old, analog way. I am sure, by the way, that people can easily find "filters" that introduce random errors / surprises into their totally digital images. So, essentially, the experience itself is probably the goal. Bulent --------------------------------------------------------------------- http://patoloji.gen.tr http://celasun.wordpress.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bc_the_path/ http://photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=2226822 http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/bulentcelasun 2016-02-03 19:38 GMT+02:00 Darren Addy <[email protected]>: > People are free to do whatever "trips their trigger" but there are > times when I personally think Photoshopping is just plain silly. One > example is TTV photography. > > Through The Viewfinder photography is pointing your digital (or film) > camera at the waist level viewfinder in a TLR or psuedo-TLR like a > Kodak Duaflex or Argus Super Seventy-Five and recording the resulting > image. You get a square image with rounded corners, odd distortion > around the edges and whatever texture in the form of grit or dust is > inherent in the old camera's viewfinder system. > > Examples taken with my Pentax digital: > https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsmithy/4149215384/ > > https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsmithy/4146636149/ > > https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsmithy/4147376607/ > > https://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelsmithy/4167390892/ > > I find the effect quite fascinating and each old camera is like a > different TTV "filter" through which to see the world. > > Now this effect can mostly be DUPLICATED in Photoshop. One can take > any image and put a mask around it to simulate the rounded cornered > square format. They can throw any sort of texture over the top of the > image and blur the perimeter. But all they have done is create a > counterfeit of a genuine TTV image, in my view. They've missed all of > the fun of the process and the use of a vintage camera to again create > interesting images. Everything has been done from the chair sitting in > front of their computer. > > I feel the same way about Photoshop recreating "lith printing". It's > not lith printing if you did it in Photoshop. It's a counterfeit > attempting to imitate the look of a process - one which by its very > definition has a tough time making two prints from the same negative > with exactly the same results. I'd say the same for imitating the > looks of most of the Alternative Processes from cyanotype, to Van Dyke > brown, to Salt Prints, etc. > > The problem with my attitude is that it's not consistent. Where do I > draw the line? Because any time I convert a digital print to > monochrome using the great Silver Efex Pro 2, I'm doing the same > thing. I'm creating a counterfeit of an analog process that few > practice today. Or if I use a cross-processing filter on a color > image, I'm simulating a process that used to exist in the days of > color film processing. > > Even if I opt to enjoy such "counterfeiting" I have to admit that the > ingredient that is missing is the element of Wonder and Surprise that > was an essential part of analog film and darkroom work. There is no > digital equivalent to that feeling you get when you see packet of > prints delivered of your last roll's images - no sense of the magic of > seeing that image appear from nothing in the tray of developer. > > The end product may be indiscernably different to the viewer, but the > process of getting there was definitely different for me as the > creator. Different does not make something necessarily better or worse > but something is lost (and perhaps other things are gained). > > Let me get another cup of coffee and then I can resume gazing at my navel... > > -- > “The Earth is Art, The Photographer is only a Witness ” > ― Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Earth from Above > > -- > 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. -- 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.
