Conceptual Assignment

Week two (9/15) of my first semester of PH 108: DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY with John Trefethen

Are you ready for some fun!? This is a creative assignment. Use your imagination. How can you communicate thoughts, feelings, or ideas through a single image? Choose one of the following phrases and try to communicate it through a new image.

This is your opportunity to be creative in thought and image. Use your newly gained knowledge of depth of field, HDR, exposure latitude, motion, etc. to capture one of the following phrases.

• "What goes around comes around."

I freaked out when I read this assignment. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the choices and how was I going to do this. Well It is not exactly what I envisioned but it is close. I think that I will try this again sometime and see how it evolves. I chose to work with, "What goes around comes around," or in my thinking karma.

P.S. This is not the moment I realized I wanted to be a photo montage artist; not even close to the moment. Life would have been a lot easier if I had realized this.

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How would you use Photoshop for your work? As a tool for enhancing the photo to an entirely new level, or just to correct photos to represent the original scene?

Does post-processing a photograph in an image editing software go against the nature of photography, is it "cheating?" Why?

I will tell you I think using Photoshop is cheating. But in the same breath confess that for as long as there has been photography there has been retouching. I have always thought that a really good image can and should stand on its own. I n all honesty I think some take it to far, retouching to an unnatural view (I’m thinking of the Ralph Lauren ad gone wrong, picture attached). However, I do also see it as a tool to allow more creativity.

I would most likely use Photoshop to enhance the images I take with occasional bursts of creative expression. Of course, I say this now because I only know enough about the program to be dangerous.