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Photography

shnu

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Seaching for good skiing pics I just came to the site from Grant Gunderson. WOW!!! :eek:
If you're interested in some really excellent ski photography have a look

Grant Gunderson
 

oragejuice

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Holy cow. I need to get myself the Digital SLR I've been looking at. Those are awesome shots.
 

marge

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Holy cow. I need to get myself the Digital SLR I've been looking at. Those are awesome shots.

Don't worry, after years of being on a photography message board it's not the camera it's the ability to Photoshop the pics. :( I can ASSURE you that those pictures have been highly finagled by Photoshop. :(

There should be two different categories of photography now, free of Photoshop and loaded. :clap:
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Don't worry, after years of being on a photography message board it's not the camera it's the ability to Photoshop the pics. :( I can ASSURE you that those pictures have been highly finagled by Photoshop. :(

There should be two different categories of photography now, free of Photoshop and loaded. :clap:

What do you think was photoshopped?

I know photo #1 (which was the cover of Skiing, I believe last month) looks too crazy to be real - like it has to be two photos stitched together but it's not. (He also won a photo contest with it last year.) There was a little side article in the magazine describing how he did it, but here's a blurb from Grant on TGR explaining it a bit:

"While I'm not going to say exactly how I did it yet..... primarily cause I want to try to better it first. However this shot really means a lot to me do to the fact that so many variables had to come together for it to work. I got the idea for this two years ago, and then it took me about a year to figure out the technicalities of how to make it work, and then another year to get the right combination of conditions. Basically I had to wait for perfectly clear skies, no moon, fresh powder, and then the temps had to be cold enough, and be dropping to prevent the lens from fogging over the long exposure. The other thing is that in addition to having to have perfect conditions, you had to time the flash perfectly with the skier to get the pow turn, and you only get one shot at making it work. "

263970095_8faeZ-O.jpg
 

oragejuice

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I'm pretty good with photoshop. But the lenses and overall quality of a Canon Digital Rebel, vs my Powershot, shouldn't even be compared. I know how to take shots, I've been told I have the eye for it... I just need the equipment so I can grow as a photographer.
 

marge

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Everything is Photoshopped nowdays. :( They play with color saturation, sharpening, layers, etc. It really is amazing. I would be REALLY interested to see the original pictures as that whole sequence would be really hard to get given the lighting available (almost none). I have a pretty high end digital SLR and I'm not sure even with a 1.4 lens you could get that kind of movement stilled almost completely with that amount (or lack of) lighting. :nono:
 

oragejuice

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
You absolutely can, but you need alot of fancy equipment on your camera. I don't think that touching up a photo (color correction, sharpening is really Photoshopping these days.) Layers, and all that? Definitely.
 

marge

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Yes, but they can change the aperature, depth of field, everything. They can change the white balance, up the lighting, almost everything. I guess I'm a purist. I want to learn how to shoot the picture itself to capture the moment, not make the moment what I remember it to be. :redface:It's absolutey amazing. :eek: I just think that should have to be "disclosed" when looking at a photograph (or at least choosing to buy a photograph).
 

oragejuice

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I know. I love simply taking pictures. And it takes a certain eye to be able to shoot something right, and not have to play with it for 2 hours afterwards to make it look the way they want.
 

tradygirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Man, that pic sure is making the rounds! Good for Grant - I hope this means big things for him.

I love that everyone thought that he photoshopped that pic. He took two very basic photography skills and put them together in an innovative way. Extremely creative thinking is an amazing skill to have.
 

marge

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I love that there is an explanation of the photo. You're right that it's a beautiful mesh of two different photos. That makes much more sense now. As a "somewhat" photographer the photo just didn't make sense as a regular photograph. :becky: It's a stunning visual, nonetheless. :becky:
 

Lurky McGee

Diva in Training
Don't worry, after years of being on a photography message board it's not the camera it's the ability to Photoshop the pics. :( I can ASSURE you that those pictures have been highly finagled by Photoshop. :(

There should be two different categories of photography now, free of Photoshop and loaded. :clap:

after years of photo school and working as a photographer I can assure you those pics have NOT been "highly finagled" by photoshop. Grant has not done anything different than he would have when he used film aside from different tools for the job. meaning a digital sensor and manually setting his color temperature and contrast etc vs film and choosing a day light balanced film vs tungsten balanced, or choosing a film with more poppy and saturated colors vs a muted portrait film, or choosing to push or pull process that film in development.... and after that there is the printing.... which itself has a whole host of manipulations in color filters, contrast filters, dodging, burning, exp. time, toners, etc

If anything, if you are a good photographer, there is generally less overall manipulation of a single digital image. most photographers don't even use photoshop anymore as we move into better digital asset management tools that more accurately reflect the darkroom. such as ACR (the adobe camera raw plugin), lightroom, aperture...

and sure, sometimes i think grants work may be a little heavy on the saturation, but he used a very saturated film stock before switching to digital and just wants the same results with his digi photos. it does not take hours upon hours of after-thought and "highly finagled" photoshop work. He learned photography before digital was the norm (and had plenty of film photos published, there are a few on his website, too). He knows how to get the shot in as pure a form as you are claiming (and he used to shoot slides, which is even less manipulation than say... Ansel Adams' photos) but because of digital, things like color temp and saturation are now settings in lightroom instead of being a film and development choice. it is the same thing in a different age.

so i hope we can all get back to enjoying Grant's work and not trying to tear it down claiming it to be fake and taking away from the years and years of photography skills that he has worked hard to build.
 

marge

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I was looking at it in the realm of actually taking a photo like that and didn't realize it was two different photos merged (would have helped to get the explanation). As one who is learning the craft (continually learning), I just witnessed that this photo was not one that could not be captured "out of the box".

So he didn't use any Photoshop to do this picture? I would LOVE to learn the craft from someone like that. :clap: To me, that is absolutely amazing then and completely stunning.

As for getting back to enjoying work I don't think discussion on photography can EVER take away from the photograph or photographer. Can learning about different techniques every really take away from a photo? Can discussion about art EVER be a mistake? I've learned SO much just from this one thread there is no reason to get upset. I'm now apologizing for assuming that this was Photoshopped in any manner.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
I'm always awestruck by the dedication of spending 4 hours basically standing still in the dark on the mountain to get that picture. I can't even fathom how cold you'd be!
 

bklyn

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
When film was at it's heyday, many great photographers were known as much for what they captured in camera as the post processing they did in the darkroom.

When you look at great portraits, for example, much of what you see is also the lighting, choice of lenses, makeup, hair... Yes, it is possible to erase wrinkles and stray hairs, but they've been doing that for years before digital. Airbrush, anyone?

Greatness can be enhanced by post processing, but it can't be manufactured if it is not already there.

Everything you see in digital photographs is not "photoshop" and image editing programs cannot compensate for poor composition and a lack of talent.
 

abc

Banned
I was looking at it in the realm of actually taking a photo like that and didn't realize it was two different photos merged (would have helped to get the explanation).
OK, I'm thoroughly confused. Was is one photo or two???

In one post, it was implied it's exposed twice on the same frame, which you can do even with film (theorectically). But in your post, you seem to believe it's two different image that were combined. Reading the link, it didn't say it explicitly it's two photos...

As for freezing the skiing action, it was clear it's a very powerful strobe. (the king we amateurs don't usually own)
 

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