NakedButSafe #1 : Natalia Zakharova by Stratis

[masquerade]

^^^^but if you aren't against manipulation, than what is wrong with manipulation. Photoshop isn't a bad thing flat out, its not a black and white thing. People are sick of photoshop when it comes to creating unattainable standards, but digital manipulation can serve a great purpose. Nick Night comes to mind when I think of photographers who have used digital manipulation.

It seems like your issue (and perhaps theirs), is against the digital because they would rather use their hands to create certain effects. In art, there has always been vitriol and hatred towards the digital by those who prefer to do things directly with their hands. When photography itself was invented, it was criticized because the images were not made with the hands. Now that photography is an accepted medium, the outrage is against using digital post production on the images. Maybe I am on a tangent but it doesn't bother me. And I don't see physical manipulation and innately superior to digital just because it was done manually.

I do have to say I think the Matter of Matter editorial is fantastic and definitely benefits from being natural and unedited because the model is also free and unselfconscious in the expressions. Its raw emotionally and the raw photography compliments it.

 

[LovelyFinger]

I'm not against using Photoshop in the least bit, its a dark room emulator for photography. I'm not against digital photography, I'm for it. I think I'm being misunderstood. A photograph has and will always be manipulation of the subject because it is light captured at various restrictions with input from the machine cropped into a rectilinear form. At its very simple understanding, it is manipulation. I'm defending their use of camera techniques because these are essential functions of a camera. This publication's action was to use RAW images to combat the industry's excessive and often-or-not poorly executed use of airbrushing. No matter what you photograph and how, it will has have manipulation to it because of the basic aspects to capture an image : aperture, shutter speed, lens, iso. More precisely, I was defending that image because the ghosting is a camera trick to establish a mood and aesthetic.

I seem to be mistaken for someone against digital manipulation, I'm the opposite and have much faith in digital imaging but I am very strongly opposed to excessive and lazy manipulation which can be helped with or in front of the camera. This magazine looks to be making a stance: the ability to capture fascinating work without relying so heavily on Photoshop post production and altering models far beyond physical capability and selling it as truth. Once in the company of an art director, he ordered to remove half of a man's shoulder and to slim him down. This model had already less than a 30" waistline.