Let me start of by saying I am not a writer and this is not meant to be a professional article. It's just a little something I though was an interesting topic and wanted to write a something about the topic.
I was recently readying an interesting article that really got me thinking. As photographers most of us use some sort of post processing applications. Whether its Lightroom, Photoshop, or another application. At what point though does editing turn into fake?
The article I was reading is on the fstoppers website i'll post the link at the bottom. They were discussing a photo by a well known photographer and that one of his images might be a fake. It personally made me wonder at what point do we say that photo is a fake and how much do we really care?
Don't get me wrong I love seeing art and super creative photography when I know that it's supposed to be fake or not actually real but I don't actually know how I feel about a fake photo that someone is trying to pass as real.
(not including fashion and portraits since all of those are photoshopped to a degree).
For Example ill use the photo from the fstoppers article i'm basing this post on.
Look at these images. They are beautiful but are they real and to what degree? The answer (spoilers) is no. No they are not real. Knowing that going in i'm fine with it because its beautiful and a creative composition. However the issue comes as discussed in the article in more length is that the photographer leads you to believe that these were taken completely in camera which is proven to be false.
So what to do about it? First I would say would be call out the photographer for his lie and he should say upfront that its a composite.
Again i'm fine with photos like this when its disclosed that its not a real photo or if you can clearly tell a photo isn't real and the photographer doesn't deny it. My issue is when a photographer tries to pass off a composite photo as real and captured in camera.
So where does that leave us? Well my thoughts and opinions have been discussed and its up to you to make up your own mind. What do you think? Is it ok to fake it and claim its real or do you feel the same way as I do? Or do you not care either way? Let me know in the comments below and thanks for taking the time to read this.
Fstoppers article
https://fstoppers.com/critiques/tale-two-moons-peter-liks-photographs-called-out-science-218194
Stock images pulled from google images searches.
