When I do art festivals and shows I’m often asked, “Did you manipulate that photograph?”  I have several answers.  The most direct is, “Yes, of course.” 

Other times I’ll reply, “My photographs are what I saw, not what the camera saw.”  Or if I’m feeling really wordy I’ll answer, “Let me explain it this way.  I approach photography from the mindset of a painter. I want to give myself the same creative freedom of a painter.”  To which the inquirer will often respond, “Oh, I get it; you’re an artist.”

To manipulate or not to manipulate.  That’s not even the question.  Why?  Because you have to go to extremes to have a photograph that is NOT manipulated.  OK, that’s a pretty bold statement.  So let’s take a deeper look.

Now, before we proceed any farther, let me put forward how I’m defining ‘manipulation.’  The impression I get when I’m asked the ‘M word question’ is that people expect the photograph to be a accurate depiction of the scene.  Anything that is not an accurate depiction is manipulated.  And that’s understandable.  After all, a photograph is captured with a mechanical and/or electronic device whose purpose is to record what is in front of it.  And the assumption is that it records the scene accurately.

Indeed, when cameras appeared on the scene they were praised by all, painters included, in their near miraculous ability to easily capture reality.  And in many forms of photography we insist that the photograph accurately capture the moment.  The most stellar example would be photo journalism.

So if we can agree that a departure from the reality of the scene is a form of manipulation, then let’s proceed.

Black and White Film Photography

Let’s start with film.  In fact, let’s start with black and white.  Now honestly, isn’t a black and white photograph an abstraction of reality?  We see the world in color but a black and white renders colors to shades of gray.  So given our definition of manipulation, wouldn’t we have to consider black and white images as being manipulated?

But let’s concede that point and look a little harder. 

The accomplished black and white film photographer has more to work with than meets the casual eye.  First is film selection.  Different black and white films respond differently to the light.  So the same scene captured on different films would have subtle and not so subtle differences.  In other words, the choice of film has an effect on the final print.

Furthermore, black and white photographers regularly use filters to darken the sky, smooth skin tones and enhance foliage.  It’s a practice that is well accepted and practiced by many BW photographers, even the masters.  Especially the masters.

But there’s more.  This same accomplished black and white film photographer can adjust the exposure and development process to optimize the potential of the film.  Let me explain.  The film is capable of capturing a range of tonalities from pure black to pure white.  The range a film can capture varies from one type of film to another.  The accomplished photographer is able to match the range of tonalities of the film to the dynamic range of the scene by adjusting the way the film is exposed and developed.  The result is the optimum negative.  The development can be adjusted by shortening or lengthening the amount of time the film is in the developer bath.  Or it can even be adjusted by mixing the chemical components of the developer in different proportions.  (Yes, Ansel Adams did all this and more.)

So the black and white photographer has quite a bit of control over the negative, control that can deviate considerably from scene that passed through the camera’s lens.

Color Film Photography

How about color film?  Can color film be manipulated in the same way as black and white?  Well, no.  Adjusting exposure and development is not an option with color film.  It must be developed at the correct concentration of developer at exactly the right temperature for precisely the correct length of time.  No fudging. 

But there is a great deal of variability among color films in the way they render hue (color), saturation and contrast.  Take hue.  If the accomplished color film photographer was photographing the great American Southwest they may choose Kodachrome film for the wonderful way it rendered reds.  If the photographer was photographing the beautiful blue Pacific they may choose Ektachrome for its fantastic blues.  Photographers that like high contrast and intense colors use Velvia.  Other photographers that prefer Provia if they are after softer images.

In other words, the accomplished color film photographer will pair the film with the situation (like pairing food with a good wine) to deliver the effect he or she wants.  Does this produce an accurate rendering of the scene?  No, I don’t think so.  But it produces the rendering the artist wants.

Prints from Film

And we haven’t talked about the print yet.  There are a lot of darkroom techniques that were regularly used.  Burning and dodging is the first that comes to mind.  If an area of the photograph is too bright and distracts from the subject it was darkened through burning.  If an area needed to be emphasized more it could be lightened through dodging.  This works for both BW and color film.

In color photography the hue of a particular area could be modified by using a color filter to burn just that area.  Master photographers even dropped moons into their landscape photographs in the good old world of film.

But even without these common darkroom techniques, the image was already altered (manipulated) when the negative or positive film came out of the developer bath.

Digital Cameras

Today most of us photograph with digital cameras.  So the whole argument about manipulating the image through the careful selection of the type of film or, in the case of black and white, the way it is exposed and developed does not apply.

Well, not exactly.  Our cameras’ sensors are produced from different manufacturers.  Canon makes their own.  Nikon uses sensors manufactured by Sony.  Tests by such prestigious labs as DxO show there are subtle differences in the way the sensors respond to light.  And the camera’s processors that create the files from the images that come from the sensor also behave differently from one manufacturer to another.  But you’re not going to change camera sensors like you could change film.  So let’s move on.

So the way film was selected, exposed and developed does not apply to digital photography; right?  Yes.  But the vast majority of digital cameras still manipulate the images. Why is that?  Because the vast majority of digital images are captured as JPEGs.  Now JPEG is a file format the compresses the raw image that comes from the camera’s sensor.  The result is a smaller file and that’s why we can get so many more JPEG files on our memory cards than RAW files.  The camera uses its processor to create the JPEG file.  Kinda makes the digital camera sound like a computer – processor, memory, programs.  Yep, it is.  But I digress.

As the camera’s processor compresses the raw image it also makes some modifications. For example it can increase or decrease the contrast.  It can do the same with saturation and sharpness.  It can also alter the hue.  These are all controls that can be adjusted in the camera’s menu system and that photographers can set to get the results they want.  Oh, we’re back to photographers getting the results they want.  Busted.  The image is manipulated.

Now, RAW files are not altered by the camera in any way.  RAW files are exactly what was recorded by the sensor.  Now they may have some metadata attached to them like the the white balance setting.  And the raw image conversion software like Lightroom may read this setting and adjust the image that it displays on the monitor.  But the change was not applied to the raw file itself.

So if we want truly unmanipulated images from our digital cameras we could get them from the RAW files.  As long as we did nothing to them. 

I recall when I first started shooting digital.  I shot JPEGs.  A big reason was the smaller file size.  But another reason was that the RAW images looked so horrible.  And I had no clue how to make them look even half as good as the JPEGs.  (Lightroom didn’t exist back then and I was a total klutz with the early version of Adobe Camera Raw.)  It wasn’t until I learned to make RAW images look as good as (or better than) JPEGs (and bought larger memory cards) that I started shooting RAW.

An interesting thing about shooting RAW is that you can buy plugins for Lightroom and other raw image conversion programs that reproduce the effects you would get from the various color and black and white films.  So we effectively have the option of selecting the right film for the situation even with digital cameras.  I think some of us still long for the film days.

So alas, all photographs are manipulated whether we’re unaware of it or intentionally make choices to get the effect we want.  Manipulation is not the issue because we can’t get away from it.  The issue is honesty.

A student of mine purchased a beautiful sunset photograph on a recent visit to Sedona, Arizona.  She thought it was very nice but had an uneasy feeling about it.  Something didn’t feel quite right about it so she asked me to take a look at it.  It was indeed beautiful.  The red cliffs were basking in the glow of the setting sun with radiant clouds above.  But sure enough, something wasn’t quite right.  And then I spotted it.  The sun on the clouds was coming from the left but on the cliffs and land it was coming from the right.  The beautiful sunset sky had been dropped in.

I don’t question the right of an artist to use techniques such as these.  It’s not for me to say what others should and should not do.  I know where I’ve drawn my line and it doesn’t include such techniques.  But have no argument with anyone who differs from me.  But we should all be honest about it and not try to deceive our audience. 

So when asked if I manipulate my photographs I proudly respond, ‘Yep, you bet.  I work really hard on my photographs.  I’ve worked on some of them for months to get them to say what I want them to say.”

Manipulated photographs?  They’re all around us.

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