Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Compositing, Retouching, and Ethics




Funny we were just talking about this in class when I was called out to take these pictures of Middle School water conservation poster winners. The first picture (small color at left) had kids in the background during passing period, but the second one had a distracting glare from the flash on a locker and the second kid from the left in the front closed his eyes. Both pictures were too dark. Now notice the black and white that I sent to the paper, brought up the middle grays, burned the posters so you could see them more clearly, and used part of the kids face and the locker from the first picture and blended them onto the second picture.

Ethical? I guess I felt comfortable with it because I don't believe that anything or anyone is misrepresented, but I know at least one journalist who would be aghast and offended, not to mention disappointed in me.

Bottom Line is, you can't always believe your eyes anymore, so use those critical thinking skills and never stop asking questions or being critical and skeptical of the media, politicians, advertisers, and celebrities.

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