According to a pin on Pinterest, you can use food coloring to create these colorful oranges. Really? Even if you injected the food coloring into the fruit, it would never result in such smooth and even coloring particularly on the skin of the fruit. Yet, this is repinned time and again . . . I sincerely hope no one destroys delicious oranges in an attempt to use food coloring to create this effect. I assure you that this was indeed digitally manipulated using Adobe PhotoShop.
In my previous post I asked why this was necessary with some of the images. Allow me to continue this discussion with the question "Where do we draw the ethical limits to photo manipulation?" How much is too much, how far is too far? Obviously, it depends on the purpose of your editing efforts. Many times, I rush to capture a photo of a bird before it flies off to parts unknown or attempt to capture a waterfall at sunset. The result may be a slight blur, underexposure or overexposure, or a crooked horizon. I am sure that we have all taken a photo of a child's first birthday and they close their eyes each time the flash occurs. I love taking photos of my pets and the result is the "red-eye effect." Things happen and Adobe Photoshop allows me to correct the errors without mis-representing an bird, animal, person, or destination. Anyone seeing the images will have a true representation of what is real.
What is the purpose when distributing an image that is not real? For example, the above image has been altered to add a shrine in the middle of a limestone pillar located in Zhangjiajie National Park in Hunan Province, China. Visiting Zhangjiajie was a wonderful experience. In fact, I have visited here 3 times and enjoyed it completely. When I first saw the image on Pinterest, I questioned if I had missed seeing it. So I sent it off to my friends at Zhangjiajie to see if they knew where this was located. They revealed that the shrine does not exist. Numerous pinners have pinned this image to their dream vacation boards, so I really hate to tell them that it does not really exist. Again, I am left with the question why? Why would someone intentionally distribute an image that does not accurately represent the destination?
When I teach my electronic marketing students how to use Photoshop, the first lessons are focused on creating aesthetics, such as following the rule of thirds, straightening the horizon, or sharpening the focus. When we move into the more artistic tools of Photoshop, the purpose is to create effective typography, combine images for advertisements, or create an original image. In order to ensure that we are truthful, I stress it is important to reveal to the viewer how the image was manipulated. This is essential when preparing marketing images and messages, for example when working with travel images. In my next blog post I will illustrate several manipulated travel related images. Will you be able to identify the real destination from the fake destination?
When I teach my electronic marketing students how to use Photoshop, the first lessons are focused on creating aesthetics, such as following the rule of thirds, straightening the horizon, or sharpening the focus. When we move into the more artistic tools of Photoshop, the purpose is to create effective typography, combine images for advertisements, or create an original image. In order to ensure that we are truthful, I stress it is important to reveal to the viewer how the image was manipulated. This is essential when preparing marketing images and messages, for example when working with travel images. In my next blog post I will illustrate several manipulated travel related images. Will you be able to identify the real destination from the fake destination?
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