photographers’ perception and influence of their personality characteristic on Photo Manipulation

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photographers’ perception and influence of their personality characteristic on Photo Manipulation

Journal Title: International Journal of Research in Social Sciences - Year 2017, Vol 7, Issue 11

Abstract

The revolution in digitally image editing has enabled photographers with unparalleled power to transform their photographs into amazing visual experience. With few clicks photographers can perform colour correction, explore hidden composition, lighting adjustments, blur backgrounds etc. These techniques can transform an average looking picture into aesthetically rich photograph. This photo processing is performed on pixels of image and this practice is called photo manipulation. According to Mike Rossnerand Kenneth M. Yamada, (2004) “Photoshop has made it all easy. In the darkroom age it was all manual and demanded considerable efforts and experience to make adjustment to image. Now it is very simple and quick, thus tempting to modify digital image”. Photo manipulation has empowered Photographers to achieve professional quality images with providing cost efficient and time saving solutions. But is it all about visual beauty of photograph. Isn’t this idea of artificial beautification is against the purity and ethics. Photo manipulation has shaken the credibility of photo journalism in public perception for authenticity since cases of unethical use of photo altering techniques are surfaced in global media. Only photographers are responsible to keep a balance between unethical photo manipulation practices and basic essential photo processing which is ethically accepted (colour correction or simple crop). This issue is still being argued by two groups of photographers. One group of purist photographers like photo journalists and wild life photographers feel cheated when they see large number of photographers unethically processing hard news and wild life photographs. Why they have invested in photography equipments or even risked their life in wild to get an original glimpse of wild life. For a true photo journalist, it is a matter of journalistic ethics. On the other side, for other group of Photoshop users like graphics designers and fashion photographers, photo manipulation is a creative expression of their skill and demand of their profession. This research paper is an attempt to enquire perception of photographers from various genres on photo manipulation. Though academic research is available on photo manipulation and its impact but it is majorly focused on editor’s opinion instead of the real practitioners of photo manipulation who are photographers and graphic designers. There is a clear void in research on enquiring photographer’s perception on impact of photography. Author has tried to fill the gap by surveying photographers from various genres. The objective of this research is to investigate the impact of photo manipulation by enquiring photographers’ perception. The analysis will also explore inter relation between photo manipulation and personality characteristic of its practitioners like occupation in media, photography genre, age, educational background and professional experience etc. How these factors influence their ethical judgement on photo manipulation; is major objective of this survey. Media ethics and journalistic code of conduct play an active role in safeguarding the credibility of media in public. S. Fosdick &Fahmy (2003) asserted, “The ethics of photography need not be divorced from the ethics of text”. Reaves (1989) pointed out that “Since digital alteration involves craftsmanship, a new type of worker is evolving who may not have training to traditional values of documentary photography”. Gladney and Ehrlich (1996) warned, “As photo manipulation getting easier, faster and traceless, there is a fear of increased temptation in media professionals for more alteration”. Further they suggested that photo manipulation in digital form should be included in list of ethical pitfalls. These researches indicate that photo manipulation in ethical limits is increasingly being acceptable but on other hand credibility of media has deteriorated steeply in the 1990. Greer &Gosen, (2002) observed that increasing trends of digital photo manipulation is responsible for lower public confidence for photographs. Greer and Gosen (2002) asserted that like text editing is acceptable to readers; minor photo manipulations like dodging and burning are also being tolerable to news paper reader. Huang (2001) states that “To date, no industry wide standards have been accepted regarding what level of photo manipulation ethics and practices are acceptable”. Dr David Campbell supported him in his report by stating, “prior to 2014 no one had researched whether or not there are accepted industry standards about what alterations (if any) media organisations around the world permit”. In 2014, World Press Photo commissioned David Campbell to enquire contemporary practices and accepted standards of photo manipulation. This report provided most relevant observations of photo manipulation trends among documentary photographers. There is sufficient study available on the issue of photo manipulation which enquires perception of readers, publishers and editors from media ethics angle. But in contrast, very fewer studies are conducted which put light on photographers’ perspective over impact of photo manipulation. Hoffman (2008) found that “current research on image manipulation has identified a clear need for tools that can measure and explore image manipulation.” The major question in literature is still under wraps that where does enhancement end and deception begin? (Fahmy, 2005). In other words, where to draw the red line? He asserted “Future studies should focus not only on news professionals and news photographs, but also on other types of photography, where digital manipulation is controversial, especially wildlife and natural history photography”. A very relevant part of this study is to investigate personality characteristics of photographers and digital artist which influence their ethical judgement towards photo manipulation. Weaver &Wilhoit, (1996) found that size of media organization plays a big role in photographers’ perception. Taking personal characteristics into consideration, Reaves (1992) established that editors’ attitude toward manipulation is impacted by factors like journalism experience, education and age. Weaver and Wilhoit (1996) did not found any trend to make a strong opinion on whether gender plays any role in manipulation judgements. Though, Pritchard (1993) observed that male editors were more prone to accept manipulation practices. There is sufficient study available on the issue of photo manipulation which enquires perception of readers, publishers and editors from media ethics angle. (Fahmy, 2005) asserted “Future studies should focus not only on news professionals and news photographs, but also on other types of photography, where digital manipulation is controversial, especially wildlife and natural history photography”. Most of available literature has still not enquired the perception of real practitioners of photo manipulation who are largely photographers and digital artists.

Authors and Affiliations

Jitendra Sharma

Keywords

Photographers' Perception Influence Of Their Personality Characteristic

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