Contemplating the metaphysics of reality probably wasn’t on the minds of Adobe’s product team that developed Photoshop Elements 8. But nevertheless, the new feature set raises some interesting questions about what is “real” when it comes to photography.
Ever since “photoshop” became a verb meaning digital photo enhancement, there has been a lingering question about what is a legitimate fix and what is dishonest manipulation. Back in the pre-digital days of chemical film, a skilled darkroom maven could do a lot to transmute mediocre shots into good ones by fixing exposure, contrast, and the like. But mainly with black-and-white film -- and certainly not to the extent possible with today’s digital technology.
News organizations frequently grapple with the issue. Generally the policy is that only limited adjustments are allowed. Anything more than that is considered to have been faked. The term of art “photo illustration” even was coined to describe more extensive manipulations, which are allowed in some circumstances. (An example would be a collage of people mentioned in an article, which was compiled from individual photos.)
Even so, controversies erupt all the time about alleged violations. So clearly even the pros are having issues with the issue.
Meantime, Adobe keeps on refining Photoshop and its consumer counterpart, Photoshop Elements.
The company has released its latest update, Elements 8 for Windows and Mac -- a source of cheer for Mac users as the two platforms now are at parity (there was no Elements 7 for the Mac). The street price is $75 for Windows; $83 for Mac. As in the past, I recommend that Windows users buy the $100 Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements bundle as better buy. Premiere is a well-featured and user-friendly video editor that is a valuable tool on a PC. Adobe doesn’t make a Mac version of Premiere Elements because it would be redundant with the iMovie application that is standard on Macs.
One of the hot new features in Photoshop Elements -- the one that led to this musing on reality -- is the “Smart Brush.” It’s a tool that lets the user select a portion of a photo and make a specified modification to it. The options include making skies bluer, grass greener, and teeth whiter. Literally. There are also a few special effect such as sepia tones and black-and-white conversion. The later makes it absurdly easy for casual users to duplicate such fancy pro tricks as creating a photo with a mix of color and B&W sections.
I was working with a recent travel photo shot with a point-and-shoot digital camera of a seaside city taken from an adjacent hillside. A large percentage of the shot is sky or sea, which pose more lighting challenges than a typical point-and-shoot can handle. So I used the sky brush to darken the blue (and differentiate it from the sea), enhanced the green vegetation on the hill, and made the skyline come to life with the contrast adjustment.
The resulting photo was dazzling. But is it “real?” It certainly does not represent what the camera captured. On the other hand, the retouched version is closer to what my eyes saw on the scene.
Perhaps reality, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
