So a visual artist, a graphic designer, and a digital photographer walk into a bar. . .

. . . but only one person comes in.

As a photographer (or photographeuse, if you prefer ) who works exclusively in the digital medium, sans film, it seems like there’s an industry expectation to have some basic photo retouching and editing capabilities. So I learned. It’s not much different from dark room magic that photographers have been doing for years. You can dodge, burn, add filters, desaturate, stack exposures, etc.

It’s also handy to remove blemishes, change the lighting effects, adjust the contrast, remove unwanted objects from the frame, change backgrounds, or almost anything you could possibly imagine.

So where do you draw the line? The skills needed in design are similar to the basic skills digital photographers are expected to have. And clients know this. They want it.

There’s a local photographer I talk to who offers classes in Photoshop at a premium rate. He spends time photoshopping each image he publishes. Sometimes a great deal of time and photo manipulation are put into his pieces.

And then there are two friends of mine who were at NBCCD for photography. Their published works are almost exclusively photo manipulation.

But all three call themselves photographers. Not “visual artists” or “digital renderers” or anything else. Photographers.

Most courses and programs of study in photography now offer some photo manipulation training. NBCC and CfA&T are both offering digital photography courses that teach you how to create complicated pieces of “digital art.” You might think by my tone that I disapprove of this quasi-interdisciplinary approach to art, but that is not the case.  I am in full support of people expanding their skill set and pushing the envelope (as well as the limits of definitions) in their chosen craft.

But it’s not me. I have fun creating digital art. I have fun taking the raw photographs that become digital art. But I am trying to get it all into the capture - lighting, focal length, contrast, and saturation are all in the set dressing, the environment, and the settings on my camera.  Sometimes I feel like I should have been using a Polaroid.

It feels like a matter of semantics, but I’m interested to know your thoughts. Which is which?

Happy ponderings

-Mae

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Philosophical musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.