Images

Does anybody know the origin of the saying "the camera never lies"? I'd like to think it was coined in the middle of the nineteenth century when photography was in its infancy and when it seemed that after clicking camera buttons you simply got what you had seen. Nowadays the notion has been well and truly flattened and any Tom, Dick or Harry can manipulate photographs in order to improve, enhance or alter what was seen originally - in other words to "lie".

I spent a little time playing around with my HP Image Zone. Above you can see what I have done with a segment of the swan photo I took last week in Lathkilldale. It has almost become an abstract design statement. Below left there's the original photo and then the same photo after I had cropped it and slightly enlarged the swans.

I rather likes this "litho" version of one of my Easter Island moai pictures. It's as if clipped from some nineteenth century adventurer's printed account.

But here's the original.
I remember that the bright light that afternoon was against me. Obviously the best time to take good photos of the moai on the south eastern slope of Rano Raraku would be mid morning. Here's the same moai with image anhancement via HP Image Zone - altering the ambient light, flipping it and playing with "contrast" and "filters":-
Hey, I'm no expert but images mean a lot to me. It's how my brain works. You'll notice that every blogpost I have ever produced has contained at least one image. With digital photography available to us all, it's fun and gratifying to be able to manipulate the images we produce. Remember past years when you'd send a roll of holiday film off for processing? You'd wait eagerly for your prints to come and often when you ripped open the Kodak or Max Spielmann package you'd be disappointed. Now we have control over our pictures - no longer spoilt by careless labs or cheap printing methods.