Episode 299

I have been asked a lot recently about what I think about some of the new tools digital photographers have at their disposal. Many programs now offer “AI or machine learning” to help edit photographs. Now with the click of a few buttons, you can replace skies, change expressions, or quickly composite images together.

Now I have never been on enough drugs to think that photographs are without manipulation. They are manipulated by point of view, lens choice, depth of field, color vs. black and white, to say nothing of dodging, burning, and color correction. However, I do wonder as we are now at a time in our lives where we can question how much of a purely digital creation can still be a “photograph.” In the ivory white towers of academic research, I am sure there will be many papers and conversations about where that line is. Still, I also think it is important for those of us making photographs to have a better understanding of what all that means. In today’s podcast, we talk a little about a few issues that arise when you think about the nature of computational photography and the language and words we might consider when talking about photography moving forward. For some of us, the line will be a lot firmer and rigid than others, but I think the more we understand how all these changes impact our sense of a photograph is as important, if not more important than how we create the photograph.

As always, I hope you and yours are safe, and please remember to keep safe and wear your mask.