There is often debate about how much editing crosses the line of having an authentic photo. Does the image need to be straight out of the camera with minimal adjustments to be genuine? Does more editing ruin the authenticity? This video discusses where the line is for the right amount of editing.
In landscape photography, people have different ideas of how much editing is too much. Some lean towards near straight out of the camera, and others will make significant edits to their image to give them the look and feel they want. Other photographers fall somewhere in between. In this video, Todd Dominey talks about how much editing is enough.
Dominey begins with his struggle to come to terms with how much editing is true to the image and the scene. He strongly desires to capture images straight out of the camera under extraordinary environmental conditions and scenes with only a minimum of edits needed. Dominey continues to touch on his internal conflict when he makes more edits to a photograph. Did it cross the line? Was it too much editing?
Dominey references Werner Herzog’s work and thoughts several times during the video with the concept of ecstatic truth and what that entails. Does editing in photography simply embrace that ecstatic truth at the expense of absolute realism?
I found the discussion of editing and landscape photography interesting as I continue to consider the point at which a photograph loses authenticity. Where do you draw the line for editing and photography?
