WYSIWYG, or maybe not.
In photography, what you see is what you get, right? Not necessarily. Sure, photojournalism should be a trustworthy reflection of what was in front of the camera when the shutter released. But other forms of photography are free to roam. Portrait photographers remove pimples and smooth skin all the time. Some respected commercial photographers think nothing of using Photoshop for a minor tummy tuck, face lift or eye widening. Now, artificial intelligence (AI) is getting into the act, enabling even amateurs to “enhance” facial features at the touch of a button. Landscape photographers use software to cut through fog, enhance details and alter color schemes. With AI, even beginners can seamlessly replace dull skies with stormy ones.
The power of today’s photo processing software can render an idealized, unreal world. Some of that is wonderful. Check out the work of Brook Shaden. But that’s not photography, strictly speaking. It’s photo illustration, sometimes just called fine art photography. Where does one draw the line between illustration and accuracy? The answer is subjective. If you hire a photographer, you might want to be clear about how much “retouching” you want or expect.
Take a look at the image above. I did minor editing to it to highlight the flag and I corrected some lens distortions. It’s an accurate representation of what I saw. The human eye can discern far more than the best cameras. So “correcting” for technological shortcomings seems fair, or even desireable. Yet digital cameras also sharpen skin details beyond what we see when we look at a loved one. So softening the skin or subtly standardizing color variations seems reasonable as well. The trick is not to overdo it. Hyper-focused images of landscapes abound, as do hyper-polished faces that make people look like mannequins. If that’s what you’re after, I’m not your photographer.
I believe our wrinkles, scars and gray hairs show character. My goal as a portrait photographer is to see beyond the mask we each present to the world. What lies beneath is far more interesting.
