Assignment 3 - Photo Manipulation

The photo that I manipulated is a photo that I took 3 years ago of an arrangement of flowers I placed in a beer bottle.  The original photo is bright and full of color.  There is a lot going on and when you look at the photo for the first time, it can seem too much for the eye. The photo is not something you can look at for a long period of time, but rather a quick glace and on to the next photo.

What I did to manipulate the photo was first change it into black and white. Then using photoshop I made the only colour in the photo be the flowers. I did this because I wanted the center of the photo to be the flowers. The colors are so vibrant and noticeable with a black and white background.

With the technology that we have today, photos can be manipulated in any way possible.  From removing and placing objects in a photo to be apart of the picture. Photo manipulation is used a lot on the human body. In magazines, billboards, movies and television, the technology we have today can make a person look as they wish. Anything from hair color, skin color, height, and size can be altered to ones preference.

The manipulation of photos can be seen as being ethically wrong. In a sense it can be because when people manipulate images for ads and magazines to make a model seem "perfect" sends out the wrong image to the public. The public is being lied to with these photos and it impacts them so much that they feel that they need to look exactly as the “perfect” model. These created so many self-esteem issues and many problems for our society. However when manipulating photos for the sake of art, it is not wrong at all. I think that we should use the available technology that we have to better advance in the world of art, not to manipulate body images that give our society low self-esteem. 

The role of portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today

1. What are main differences and similarities between portraits in the early days of photography and portraits today?

Some similarities between portraits in the early days of photography and today are that is bears a sentimental sense of value for its keepers. In the early says of photography, people use portraits of loved ones, family members to carry around in lockets and powder boxes as a memory/keepsake. In today's society, people still carry around portraits of loved ones and family members in their wallets, keychains, etc

Some of the differences in the early days or portrait photography are portraits  being made in a miniature form. But today, portraits are usually made at a larger scale, fit be place in homes, advertisement, monuments etc. Another difference would be that in the early days people who had their portrait done were people of high status. In today’s societym anyone and everyone can have their portrait taken. There is no more sense of hierarchy when it comes to having your portrait taken. 

2. Who was the photographer and who was the subject of photographs in the past and today? 

In the early days the photographers were the middle class artists/ painters who would make the portraits of the higher-class people.  Today, anyone who owns a camera is the photographer, and anything and everything can be the subject of their photos

3. What was the impact on technology on the portraits in the past and today?

The impact technology has greatly affected photography in the early day and today. In the technology was not developed in the past, photography may not be the same as it is today.  With the invention of the physionotrace, it was one of the inventions that sped up the process of forming a silhouette and engravings to form a portrait. The innovation of wet collodion and calotype method has shown us how technology has transformed over the years to what it is today. Today with everything being digital, cameras have high resolution and photos look more real and the camera and capture every single detail.